OC Fair Ends the 120th Anniversary Year with Record-Breaking Attendance

COSTA MESA, Calif., Aug. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The 2010 OC Fair went out with a bang, boasting record-breaking attendance for its 120th anniversary. The OC Fair saw 1,154,969 visitors, breaking more than a million in attendance for the fifth time in six years. The 2010 Fair might be over for the year, but as the theme indicates, the beat still goes on! The OC Fair was July 16-August 15.

"The 2010 OC Fair's success is based squarely on the community's participation in and love of their 120-year-old tradition. In this pivotal year, we could not be more pleased to have experienced the best Fair imaginable," said OC Fair CEO & President Steve Beazley.

The Pacific Amphitheatre also had a record-breaking year with nine sold-out concerts. The top-attended concerts were Sublime with Rome/The Dirty Heads, Train, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts with The Runaways' Cherie Currie, Adam Lambert/Orianthi and John Legend.

More than 170,800 Fairgoers took advantage of the values offered with a variety of gate promotions featuring discounts or free admission. More than 11,100 people purchased the popular Super Pass, a season pass which granted 23 days of admission plus other discounts, coupons and front-of-line access.

The five most popular carnival rides this year were: La Grande Wheel, Sky Ride, Hi Miler, Euroslide and The Wave in the Main Carnival; and Pirate's Island, Survivor Island, Lil Dipper, Bumble Bees and Silver Streak in the Kiddie Carnival.

The Fair's unofficial Fry King, Chicken Charlie, ended up using more than 4,000 gallons of soybean oil to deep-fry more than 12,000 pounds of flour that coated everything from Twinkies and Oreos to frogs' legs and new-for-2010 Klondike Bars. At the Burger Joint, a few hundred 11-inch Belly Buster Burgers and more than 4,500 Colossal Curly Fry Cones expanded Fairgoers' waistlines.

In the Action Sports Arena, the top five most thrilling events, in order of attendance, were: Motorhome Madness Demolition Derby; Orange Crush Demolition Derby (both events ranked top five); X-treme Freestyle Moto-X and Bull Riding.

The Hangar, the Fair's newest entertainment complex, quickly became a popular destination for live music with the top shows being Sweet & Tender Hooligans (tribute to Morrissey and The Smiths); Wild Child (tribute to Jim Morrison and The Doors); Mariachi Sol de Mexico de Jose Hernandez; "Led Zeppelin Live!" starring Heartbreaker (tribute to Led Zeppelin); and Purple Reign (tribute to Prince).

Here are more numbers for the 2010 OC Fair:

• 2,000 multi-layered Jumbo Mexican Funnel Cakes were eaten and only one Fairgoer met the challenge to consume one alone.
• The new Heart Attack Cafe shocked hearts and stomachs with more than 8,000 deep-fried butters and 1,500 deep-fried chocolate-covered bacon.
• Chicken Charlie deep-fried more than 4,000 pounds of frog legs, 8,000 avocados, 10,000 Klondike Bars and 30,000 Oreo cookies.
• 3,574 exhibitors submitted 9,872 entries which received 3,952 award ribbons and won more than $28,600 in cash awards.
• 243 livestock entries were sold at the Junior Livestock Auction earning local youth 4-H and FFA members more than $174,312. A total of 500 livestock exhibitors presented some 2,800 animals during the 2010 Fair.
• More than 860 people purchased a Carnival Fast Pass to get to the front of the ride line fast.
• For the eight unlimited carnival ride wristband days offered in 2010, some 44,000 daredevils took advantage of the weekday promotion.
• For the four "We Care Wednesday" community donation drives, 83,916 generous Fairgoers donated 50 tons of food, 60,000 children's books, 99,000 pounds of gently used clothing, and 86,112 new school supplies.
• Born into the Centennial Farm family this year were 19 piglets and a calf.
• Patron survey results showed fairgoers felt a "Good-Excellent" overall satisfaction on their visit to the Fair with a 4.28 out of 5 average rating.
• Survey results also showed that on average fairgoers made 2.8 visits to the Fair and averaged 5.3 hours per visit.

The 2010 OC Fair, themed The Beat Goes On, was July 16 – August 15 and included 23 days of food, rides, exhibits, animals, music and fun, as well as the popular Super Pass, Pacific Amphitheatre Summer Concert Series, Action Sports Arena and the new-for-2010 The Hangar. The Fair was open Wednesday-Sunday.

The OC Fair & Event Center is located off the 405 and 55 freeways at 88 Fair Drive in Costa Mesa, and features hundreds of events throughout the year. For more information, please visit ocfair.com or follow us on Twitter twitter.com/ocfair.

SOURCE OC Fair & Event Center