Packing Up at Seaside Park

The Ventura County Fair drew nearly 309,000 visitors this year, topping last year’s record attendance by more than 16,000 people.

The fair’s 12-day run, which ended Sunday, was “absolutely flawless,” said spokeswoman Teri Raley. “Last year, I kept saying, ‘This is just magic.’ Every now and then you get to beat magic with magic.”

Total attendance was 308,630, compared with 292,394 last year.

Fiesta Day on Aug. 3 drew the biggest single-day crowd, with 34,814 people packing the fairgrounds at Seaside Park in Ventura. The band that day, Conjunto Primavera, drew an audience of 16,000, the largest ever at the county fair.

LeAnn Rimes drew the second-biggest crowd, 12,000, followed by Lone Star with 11,000, Heart with 10,000, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy with 9,000, Tracy Byrd with 6,500, the Supremes with 5,000 and Uncle Kracker with 4,500.

Raley attributed the surging attendance to “the weather, the family environment ... and the fact that we had some genuinely fresh stuff this year.”

While the weather may have seemed warm to Ventura residents, it beat the heat in the rest of the county and the San Fernando Valley, Raley said.

“We’re a little cooler than every place else as a result of the ocean breeze,” Raley said. “That probably drove a lot of people from inland.”

And Raley was also pleased at the absence of Ventura’s normally overcast skies. “I cannot remember before having 12 consecutive days of bright, clear sunshine with no fog,” she said.

Among the new offerings this year were a reptile show, which ran the first nine days of the fair, and most of the carnival rides.

The rides were so popular, Raley said, that gross carnival sales were up 35%. Especially popular were the Mega-Drop, a 138-foot simulated free fall, and an 88-foot slide.

On Monday, fair workers and vendors worked to dismantle the scores of booths and exhibits.

James Fisher of San Diego, who works for Northern California-based Images Everywhere, was at the fair all 12 days, photographing fairgoers entering the side gate. Patrons could buy the pictures on their way out.

Business this year was better than last, he said, and the weather couldn’t be beat. His next stop is the much-warmer California State Fair in Sacramento, which begins Friday.

He’s also looking forward to next year’s Ventura County Fair. The tentative start date is Aug. 4.