Despite firsts and sold-out shows, OC Fair attendance is down from last year

Despite sold-out shows and thousands of deep-fried treats consumed, the 125th annual OC Fair recorded a slight decline in attendance this year.

Fair officials said Monday that 1,301,445 people passed through the gates during the 23-day run, which began July 17.

The amount marked a 2.67% drop in attendance from last year’s 1,337,167 and was the lowest figure since 2010’s “The Beat Goes On”-themed fair, which attracted about 1.1 million visitors.

Fairgrounds spokeswoman Robin Wachner said the rain and extreme heat contributed to the attendance dip this year.

“If it weren’t for those days, it would have been up,” she said.

Still, the summertime tradition — this year’s theme was “One Big Party” — recorded 10 sold-out shows at the Pacific Amphitheatre, another 10 sold-out shows at The Hangar and 13 sold-out shows at the Action Sports Arena.

This year’s fair also included the grand opening of Plaza Pacifica, the amphitheater’s new entrance, as well as the first OC Fair Cattle Drive through Costa Mesa streets since 2008.

“With my first OC Fair on the books, I fully appreciate all of the hard work that goes into creating this exciting summer tradition for 125 years,” said fairgrounds CEO Kathy Kramer in a statement. “From the deep-fried Slim Fast bar to a cattle drive down Harbor Boulevard to the cute piglets and beautiful competitive entries, the OC Fair is an amazing summer tradition that I am proud to have shared with more than 1 million guests and staff.”

The fair’s coinciding with the Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles brought 1,100 delegates to the fairgrounds.

At the Centennial Farm, two sows gave birth to 17 piglets.

A new “ambassador program,” spearheaded by Kramer, took fair employees, riding golf carts, into Costa Mesa’s College Park and Mesa del Mar neighborhoods for the first time to deal with longtime neighborhood concerns such as illegal parking and trash.

The Orange County Transportation Authority helped transport more people to the fair this year, with 78,896 riders taking the OC Fair Express service, up from last year’s ridership of about 77,000.

When it came to beating the heat, 143,748 fairgoers cooled off in the Ice Museum, where 90,000 pounds of ice was sculpted by six carvers over six days.

Fair officials noted that the ice museum was home to a marriage proposal.

More than 10,500 people put on skates to whirl about the fair’s ice-skating rink.

And regarding the food, fair officials said 4,000 maple bacon doughnuts, 30,000 deep-fried Oreos and 15,000 deep-fried coffee balls were sold.

At Pickle O’Pete’s, 200 five-gallon buckets worth of pickle chips, 1,500 orders of Drunken Pickle Poppers and 800 inches of pickle-wrapped wieners on a stick were gobbled up. And to benefit the Children’s Hospital of Orange County, Chicken Charlie’s sold 26 $125 caviar Twinkies.