California State Fair sees increase in attendance after pandemic hiatus
SACRAMENTO – The return of the California State Fair & Food Festival was a success, event organizers say.
After a two-year hiatus, the state fair saw a total of 652,873 people come through the gates. Officials say this was an increase of 8.9 percent over the 2019 edition of the fair.
"Our food and ride partners have told us that this year's fair was by far their most successful ever and we could not be happier for them," said Cal Expo GM and CEO Rick Pickering in a statement.
About 20,000 pounds of candy was bought from the Candy Maze Selfie Station, organizers say, and Milos Corndogs went through around 10,000 pounds of batter.
Organizers also highlighted the popularity of the new California Cannabis Exhibit, which displayed the state's growing legal marijuana industry.
The California State Fair was seeing lagging attendance numbers leading up to the pandemic hiatus. Despite a slight increase in 2019, numbers were still down around 40 percent of what the fair saw in the early 2000s.
An increase in security was a focus this year, with the fair reporting just three arrests over the 17-day event. For the first time, the fair instituted a ban on unaccompanied youth at night on weekends.