What to Know
- 2019 OC Fair
- July 12-Aug. 11, 2019
- The numbers for this year's just-ended fair have been released
One day, we'll run away and join the fair, but before that happy occasion? We need to thoroughly school ourselves on what actually happens behind the scenes at such a ginormous, multi-faceted undertaking.
For a lot goes down at the place where the Ferris wheel goes up, from planning to management to the final look-back at just how things went.
And the OC Fair, in Costa Mesa, has a tradition of giving fans a peek behind the curtain, or perhaps hay barrel is more apt, each and every year.
The 2019 extravaganza just went bye-bye, after four rockin', squealin', corn-cob'n weeks, and the big, big, HUGE numbers are out and ready for us to chew on, like we're biting into a deep-fried candy bar.
Have a guess as to how many guests fun'd-it-up at the 2019 OC Fair, which can trace its festive story back to the 1890s?
If you just called out "1,393,482," well, you're super-talented in the guesstimates arena.
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It's a mega number, but slightly below the fair's record-setting 2018 year, when 1,470,636 guests popped by.
About 15,000 Icees were sipped to stave off the warm sunshine in 2019, while some four tons of pizza dough went into the Enzo's Pizza pies.
As for the number of Hot Dog on a Stick hot dogs that we're munched? You're right if you pinpointed "20,000" as the correct number.
And Squeezers lemonade surmises that "an entire grove of lemons" were necessary to make the sweet drinks.
In the craft arena?
Guests made some 4,000 pom poms at the Home Arts Craft Table, using 73,000 yards of yarn. And four tons of clay were employed at Muddy's Studio over the 23 days of the fair.
Visitors to the fair made time to stop by Heroes Hall to create 3,670 postcards for veterans, so kind.
The winnings were solid, too, in the competition categories. "Garden and floral entries totaled 5,830 this year and winners were paid $13,615."
Nice.
But perhaps one of the nicest tidbits of all? The number of animals born at Centennial Farm during the July 12-Aug. 11 happening.
Ten piglets oinked their adorable way into the world, awww, as did one cute calf.
So what will 2020 hold at this midway-merry, horsey-happy to-do?
The numbers, as always, will be impressive, so stay tuned. Details will surely be rolling out about next year's affair as surely as nine tons of sugars were just used by Ray Cammack Shows to make a whole host of treats, from cotton candy to funnel cakes.
Nine. Tons. Of sugar. Oh, OC Fair, you bring it, oh yes you do. One day, we will run away and join the fair, or at least daydream about it.
