Plotting a Strategy for Fun at the Fair

When the Del Mar Fair hits town each year, 17-year-old Caroline Sears chooses her night carefully, waits until dusk and, with a large group of friends, walks the short distance from her Solana Beach home to the fairgrounds.

Once inside the fair gates, Sears and companions make an unswerving shot to their first goal . . . the Falling Star ride in the Fun Zone.

Veteran fair-goers, whatever the makeup of the group, are notorious creatures of habit. The families of five, the couples, the groups of friends, the solo visitors all seem to have a strategy for getting around the 75-plus acres of the fairgrounds.

For Sears and friends, the Falling Star gets high marks because everybody in the group can go on it at one time. “It goes up and around in circles, and you can see everything from the top.”

When the novelty of the Falling Star and the 150-odd other Fun Zone rides pales, Sears and her pack move on to other amusements on their fair agenda. Food, cinnamon rolls in particular, head the list, followed by shopping for crystals in a little booth under a big-top tent.

“I’ve been going for years for the Fun Zone and for the people,” Sears said. “It’s kind of cool to go to the fair. It’s something different.”

Becky and Scott Heyl of Poway are also staunch fans of the fair, but their itinerary encompasses more than the Fun Zone.

“Sometimes the Fun Zone is too cost-prohibitive,” Becky said. “We go to eat the fish and the cinnamon rolls and listen to the Grandstand concerts if it’s somebody we like.”

Visiting all the animals in the livestock area and sampling some of the local musical talent performing on smaller stages throughout the fair is also a high priority for the Heyls.

John Marinez, a Solana Beach resident who has always lived within walking distance of the fair, can’t remember a year he’s missed the festivities. The 33-year-old spokesman for the California Highway Patrol says, however, that he has noticed a change in his fair-going habits.

“I enjoy the fair during the daylight hours because it seems like the fair is geared toward a younger crowd at night,” Marinez said. “I enjoy the exhibits as opposed to the past when I could hardly wait to get to the carnival part of it. The exhibits to me are the best.”

Like Caroline Sears, Marinez says he gathers his group of friends and they walk to the fair to avoid the traffic and parking hassles. Unlike Sears, who waits until dark to make her fair pilgrimage, Marinez says he likes getting to the fair earlier in the day.

Because most people have attended the fair before, they want things in the same place year after year, said fair spokeswoman Diane Scholfield.

This year, though, there are some changes that may throw some fair-goers accustomed to finding everything in its place off course. Construction of the west end of the Grandstand Building has prompted these changes, shifting several exhibits to different buildings or areas of the fairgrounds.

“This year with the Grandstand construction, so much of the fairgrounds is unavailable to us, but, even so, we are trying as much as possible to place things as near to their former location,” Scholfield said. “The reason for that is that people who come to the fair like to leave feeling that they saw something new, but it was the same comfortable, familiar place they’ve been coming to year after year.”

Automatically knowing where your favorite food vendor is stationed because of memories from years past is just one example of how fair-goers get around, Scholfield said. Location of activities and exhibits figures heavily on fair planning, she said.

The changes in locale this year primarily concentrate on the exhibits, not the food or shopping booths. To help fair-goers get around, there will be three information booths, one inside each of the main gates and one in the infield.

The International Photo Exhibit will be housed in a tent in the infield this year. Art in all media, technology education and design in wood categories will be situated on both floors of the east end of the Grandstand Building.

Home Arts clothing and textiles will be housed in the new Mission Tower Building, just south of the Grandstand building near the Fun Zone. Food contest entries will be displayed in a tent in Pipsqueak Plaza.

Spa companies will display their wares at the new Pool and Spa Pavilion Stage in the infield.

The livestock exhibits will remain in their traditional places. The flower and garden show, gems and minerals and numismatic exhibits will also remain in their same locations near the Avenue of the Palms, the main thoroughfare of the fair.

Once you get your bearings, getting around the fair unencumbered by bulky packages or sulky toddlers does not have to present a problem, either. Wheelchairs and strollers can be rented from stands near the O’Brien and Durante gates. For a fee, parcels may be checked at a booth near the O’Brien gate.

And, if getting around the fair gets you separated from your group, even the traditional lost and found location (the Don Diego Clock Tower) has changed. Fair officials suggest linking up with your group at the guest relations office at the east end of Bing Crosby Hall.

The fair does not page lost people unless it’s an extreme emergency, Scholfield said. A bulletin board where visitors can leave messages is located at the guest relations office.

If a young child gets separated from his or her parents, uniformed security guards look in the immediate area for the parents and then take the child to a supervised play area in the guest relations complex. Conversely, parents can approach any security guard and say they’ve been separated from their child, and a description is put out over the guards’ radio network.

Fairing Well

20 Days of Exhibits, Entertainment and Edibles

DATES

The 1992 Del Mar Fair, “Horsing Around--A 24-Carrot Love-A-Fair,” opens its gates Tuesday and runs through July 5.

LOCATION

The Del Mar Fairground is west of Interstate 5 off the Via de la Valle exit. Traffic guards will direct motorists to parking sites.

HOURS

Visitors may enter the fairgrounds from 9 a.m.-10 p.m. daily. Certain fair events stay open until 12:30 a.m. Exhibits are open 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 10 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. The midway Fun Zone is open from noon-12:30 a.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and 11 a.m.-12:30 a.m. Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

ADMISSION

$6 for adults, $3 for senior citizens age 62 and older, $1 for children ages 6-12. Under age 6 free. On Tuesdays (kids days), children 12 years and younger get in free.

PARKING

There are 12,000 free on-sight parking spaces. Gates open at 9 a.m. and close at 12:30 a.m. daily. Additional parking is available off-site on weekends and July 3, at three locations: The parking lots at Torrey Pines High School (I-5 and Carmel Mountain Road), Eastgate Mall (near Interstate 805), and UC San Diego (I-5 and Genesee Avenue). Free shuttles will run continuously from these sites from the time the gates open at 9 a.m. until they close at 12:30 a.m.

PHONE

For 24-hour recorded information on daily events and Grandstand entertainment, call 259-1355.