Entrance to The San Diego County Fair
REPORTING FROM DEL MAR, CALIF. — The “Alice In Wonderland” meets Steampunk theme led the San Diego County Fair here to its best revenue return and highest attendance figures in its 136-year history. The 2016 version of the fair saw 1,609,481 people walk through the gate June 3-July 4.
“We had a great fair, an absolutely great fair,” said Tim Fennell, director of the San Diego County Fair. On July 3 alone, the fair hosted 96,501 people, pushing it past the previous record which was set just last year. “We beat the old attendance record by 33,000 people the second to the last day before the end of the fair.” With the last day pulling in close to 100,000 people, the fair increased attendance by 7 percent from last year.
Russ Penniman, chairman of the board, San Diego County Fair; Tim Fennell, president and CEO, San Diego County Fair.
Fennell estimates that the fair grossed $39 million this year, $2 million more than the 2015 take of $37 million. He expects the fair to net north of $11 million after depreciation, a $300,000 step up from last year’s net of $10.7 million after depreciation. Fennell estimates the operating budget for the fair to have been $28 million.
Part of Fennell’s magic comes from understanding his audience. “We have a large Hispanic population here in San Diego, so we program to that segment, and we even market south of the border,” said Fennell.
Concessions grossed $23,308,000, broken down between food, $18,785,000, and beer and wine sales of $4,523,000. Food sales were up 10 percent; and beer and wine sales were up 21 percent compared to last year. The top concessions were Juicy’s LLC’s Juicy’s; Chicken Charlie’s Rotisserie Stand, Pineapple Stand and Broasted; and Golden West BBQ’s Wood Pit BBQ.
Concessions were helped along by the use of coupon books, called ‘Passport To Savings,’ provided by Mirage Entertainment. This year 60,000 coupon books were sold, costing five dollars each. That’s a 10 percent increase from last year’s 54,000 books sold. Fennell said that, “anyone who isn’t using these books is leaving money on the table. They drive value and work very well.”
There were 150 coupons in the 2016 coupon book. Most of the coupons allow the purchaser to either save money at a concession or get a deal on a second item at that concession, and the book also has coupons for stores outside the fair, like convenience store 7-Eleven. If a fairgoer used every coupon in the book, they would save $1,000. The most popular coupon used at the fair this year was the coupon for Olde Tyme Ice Cream, where the customers received a free hand-dipped ice cream bar.
Mark Entner, Mirage Entertainment, said, “People love the savings. A lot of people feel nickel-and-dimed when they come into these events and this solves that problem. We’ve been partnering with the San Diego fair for seven years. We also have a deal with the Arizona State Fair.” Another compelling piece of the program are 10-foot wheels, which give each purchaser a chance to spin to win prizes.
Entner said the company had three to five more venues ready to start the coupon book program, and they are looking to expand into arenas and stadiums. Typically, the venue and Mirage split the expenses for producing the book and proceeds from the book 50/50. “We provide a turnkey operation; we do everything, including making the deals with the vendors, so there is no pressure on the venue operators.”
The carnival rides and midway games earned $10,769,000, which was a 4.3 percent improvement from last year. Top rides were S&J Entertainment’s Crazy Mouse; Ray Cammack Shows’ Grand Wheel and Skyride;Wood Entertainment's Magnum and Southern Cross Rides' G-Force.
Lady Antebellum was the top concert in the paid ticket category. They played to 8,000 fans. The top nonpaid concert was a performance by Calibre 50, a Hispanic act, who pulled in 12,000 people. All the concerts are booked in-house. Cathy Mordente arranges the free shows; Becky Bartling books the hard-ticket grand stand shows.
The Purple Xperience, a Prince tribute show, was very well received and attended, said Fennell.
“We are a very diverse fair,” said Fennell. “One of the things that sets us apart is that we theme the fair every year. This year’s “Alice In Wonderland” meets Steampunk theme was a major homerun for us. It was highly successful and I think it boosted attendance and helped us set the all-time record, no doubt in my mind. I got compliments every day, people saying, ‘what a great theme.’ I knew it was going to be a popular theme, but I had no idea how popular.
One of the costumed characters inside 'Alice's Mad World'.
Fennell employs a similar strategy each year in building the fair that he calls the 80-20 rule. “We make sure that 20 percent of what we present is new and 80 percent is favorites from past fairs,” said Fennell. “This year we built a 20,000-sq.-ft. building for the “Alice” theme. We had tea parties, sometimes dueling tea parties, that we turned into a contest. We had 85 great rides; about 20 percent were new to us this year.”
Fennell said setting revenue records, setting attendance records, and setting customer service satisfaction survey records were the highlights of the fair. “When you have a fair of our magnitude, and it runs as smoothly as it did, and was as successful as it was, it’s definitely the highlight of the fair,” he said.
Fennell’s only worry: “I don’t know how we are going to top it next year.”
Interviewed for this story: Tim Fennell, (858) 792-4490; Mark Entner, (949) 514-9659