The fair was apparently the place to be this summer in Northern Santa Barbara County.
According to officials at the Santa Maria Fairpark, the Santa Barbara County Fair, which ran from July 13 to 17, drew its largest recorded crowd in history. A grand total of 147,363 people attended the four-day family extravaganza this year.
Fair spokesperson Yvonne Biely said event administrators have been tracking attendance for about 10 years. Until now, the largest crowd in the last nine years tallied up to 135,000 people.
The fair boasted several new attractions this year, including the Helms and Sons carnival, the turkey stampede, and bird and butterfly shows.
“We like to keep it fresh so people have new things to look at,” Biely said.
Another headline event was the junior livestock auction.
“Junior livestock took in about $2.1 million this year. We got $1.7 million last year, and that was an all-time high, and we surpassed it,” Biely said. “We’re very happy for those kids.”
The two most popular days were Wednesday, the fair’s dollar day, and Thursday, which included performances from country singer Clint Black and the Demolition Derby.
This article appears in Jul 21-28, 2011.