More than 55,000 people attended the Santa Cruz County Fair this year, an 11% jump from last year.
The number includes paid attendance from the public as well as the fair’s long list of volunteers, said fair spokesman Ron Haedicke.
“There were no major incidents and we had a great fair,” Haedicke said.
From a large cluster of amusement park rides to a 400-legged millipede, a litter of piglets, equestrian competitions, silkie chickens, quilt making, bonsai trees, monster trucks, apple pies, pickled vegetables and Lego collections, the fair spread its colorful feathers far and wide this year.
“We are incredibly grateful for the community’s response to this year’s Santa Cruz County Fair,” Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds CEO Dori Rose Inda said. “… Throughout the five days you could feel the energy and enthusiasm across the fairgrounds. At its heart, the fair is about celebrating agriculture, youth, creativity, tradition and community—and bringing people together.”
Inda said the fair’s success wasn’t due to any one attraction, but rather the thousands of people who participated, volunteered, exhibited, competed, performed and “enjoyed being part of our community.”
In the Fine Arts Building, Donna Giubbini, chair of Fine Arts, said her crew took in more than 500 works of art, from children’s creations to professional paintings, sculptures, wood carvings and ceramics.
A total of 24 students from Pajaro Valley and Watsonville high schools, led by the local environmental nonprofit Watsonville Wetlands Watch, volunteered to divert food waste and help fairgoers properly sort their waste at more than 10 stations around the fairgrounds.
“For many fairgoers, festive food is one of the highlights of the event, yet much ends up in the trash,” WWW Communications Director Brooke Sampson said. “In the US, about 30-40% of food goes to waste.”
She said students sorted trash, food waste and recyclables to help keep unnecessary waste out of the landfill.
