Los Angeles County Fair beckons fried-food fans; attendance up 5%

With a motto that urges visitors to indulge, the Los Angeles County Fair has recorded a estimated 5% increase in attendance in the first 13 days of the annual event.

Between Aug. 31 and Sept. 12, the fair drew more than 550,000 visitors, officials said. The event at the Fairplex in Pomona ends Sept. 30. (The fair is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.)

Because of the hot temperatures recently, fair officials say attendance is spiking later in the evening.

“What we are seeing is that the L.A. County Fair has become an evening event for guests,” said spokeswoman Michelle DeMott. “We’ve seen tremendous bumps in attendance after 5 p.m.”

The fair has long featured high-caloric, deep-fried snack foods. But this year the fair is proudly promoting the gut-busting offerings with radio ads that proclaim “Tell your diet to stick it” and “Instead of worrying about gluten, be a glutton!”

New this year at the fair is a 2-pound beef rib on a 17-inch bone, deep-fried cookie dough, deep-fried Dodger Dogs, deep-fried cereal, deep-fried pineapple and deep-fried Spam.

Starting Saturday, in honor of the Girls Scouts, fair vendor Chicken Charlie’s will be deep frying thin mint cookies.

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Follow Hugo Martin on Twitter at @hugomartin