As part of the proposal, the fair will close Mondays and Tuesdays, meaning that the overall number of days the fair is open will increase from 21 to 23. Since its inception, the Orange County Fair has expanded multiple times, most recently in 2002, when it went from 17 days to 21.
“I think history has shown [expansion] has worked in the past, and there’s no reason to expect it wouldn’t work in the future,” said Howard Lindsey, who sells concessions at the fair.
Fair executives predict that lengthening the event may initially lower daily attendance because guests would have more days from which to choose, but soon, they said, more people will start coming. In order to prevent a precipitous drop in daily attendance, the fair is trying to make a few big additions to its advertising and fair offerings. Fair planners think constructing new buildings, presenting a new exhibit centered on Weird Al Yankovic and advertising to tourists will all help boost next year’s numbers.
“Not only does the staff recommend this model, we have some initiatives that we think will be profoundly effective in attracting people to the fair,” said fair Chief Executive Steve Beazley.
Still, some fair salesmen say the expansion will end up taking money out of their pockets because they have to spend more keeping their workers at the fair longer. People with smaller operations and less heavy machinery to move seemed to raise the most objections because they don’t have as much difficulty moving from fair to fair, and the items and services they sell might lose their novelty if they stay in one place too long.
