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The 80th anniversary of the L.A. County Fair closed on Sunday, Sept. 29, concluding a successful 17-day run. Attendance was the second highest for a 17-day L.A. County Fair since 1948.
Despite heat, fire and the possibility of rain on closing weekend, the Fair ended with 1,288,056 in attendance, an increase of nearly 10 percent over 2001 Fair attendance of 1,171,304. The opening Friday was attended by 118, 371 beating the previous Friday high for 2001 of 117,387. Admission both years was $1 on opening day.
New to the Fair in 2002 was Lights! Camera! Science!, presented by AT&T Wireless the star attraction in Fairplex 7A, that featured a look at science in cinema and cinema in science. More than half a million Fairguests visited the exhibition over the course of the 17-day Fair. The Fair stayed open until midnight on Friday and Saturday nights and added Fair After Dark to complement the additional hour.
Guests came to shop and to eat at their favorite spots and try out the new food items. The Deep Fried Snickers on a Stick and Deep Fried Twinkies proved to be big hits both with Fairguests and with the media. Fairguests consumed more than 22,000 Deep Fried Twinkies and Deep Fried Snickers Bars. The barbecue stands were a crowd pleaser and corn on the cob is a Fair tradition. Rose’s Mexican Food served 13,600 pounds of beans. New to the event were Thai food stands, Australian Pies, steak fingers and homemade tortillas from Juanita’s. Calamari, vegeburgers, sliders, pork chop on a stick, Chicago Hot Dogs and chocolate tortillas all had good response from Fairguests. All told, there was in excess of $10 million in food sales at the 2002 L.A. County Fair.
Kountry Kritters moved to FairView Farms and Healthy LifeStyles, presented by HealthExpo moved into Fairplex 8A. Visitors came to glean information and products on healthy living and take advantage of health screenings.
Concerts were presented 10 nights of the Fair by the Lo
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