The 2023 “Happy Together” OC Fair tickets are on sale, including a new offering: the Every Day Passport.
For $60, passport holders will be able to visit the fair during any of the 23 days it is open between July 14 and Aug. 13.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, the fair offered a similar Super Pass, but this new program is different, officials said. Visitors who purchase the new Every Day Passport will not need to go online to reserve the dates they want to go.
Though the OC Fair will continue to cap daily admission at 45,000 people, there will be no restrictions on the ticket passport, however, no more than 10,000 will be sold.
“The Super Pass before, we sold thousands and thousands and thousands of those each year, but it was very difficult to control the attendance every day. So this (Every Day Passport) is a little bit different,” said Michele Richards, chief executive of the OC Fair & Events Center. “There are no restrictions or reservations that are needed, but there’s a limited quantity that is going to be sold. So if people are interested, they’ve got to get their everyday passport now.”
Richards said excessively long lines for things such as restrooms and shows was negatively impacting visits to the fair before the pandemic. The fair exceeded more than 1.3 million visitors in 2019.
“We have been very successful the last two years of creating a great guest experience at the OC Fair by limiting the number of people that can come to the fair on a daily basis,” she said of what started out as a pandemic precaution. “Prior to the pandemic, there was no attendance limit and I’m afraid to say that it didn’t create a very good guest experience, particularly on the weekends.”
In prior years, surrounding neighborhoods were also feeling the effects of the increasingly popular fair, Richards said. The fairgrounds would run out of parking, she said, and people were illegally parking in neighborhoods, creating a nuisance there.
“The…
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