The 2024 San Diego County Fair wrapped up its very successful 20-day run on July 7.“AutoMatters & More” was there for several of those days, shooting thousands of photos plusmore video than at any of the previous fairs. No doubt its organizers have already begun workon what will most certainly be even bigger and better 2025 San Diego County Fair.
The theme of the 2024 San Diego County Fair was “Let’s go Retro.” As was written in asubsequent email blast from the Fair titled “Share Your Fair as We Go Back to theFuture,” “We’ve closed our Time Capsule of fun, and the 2024 San Diego County Fair is now —in all senses of the word — RETRO. Thank you so much for attending our Blast to the Past andpartying like it was 1999!”
“Let’s Go Retro” was “a nostalgic look back at the styles, music, movies, shows, and culturalzeitgeist of the 1950s through the 1990s.” It brought back many old favorites and also addedwonderful, new attractions.
A 20,000-square foot, multi-faceted exhibit in the theme building showcased that with a varietyof nostalgia-inducing items — large and small — from each of those eras.
There were 18 new rides, as well as abundant livestock, and produce grown on the farm.
Something especially new and wonderful was the introduction of one-performance-onlySaturday night shows at The Sound, the concert venue on the Del Mar Fairgrounds. I coveredtwo of these shows: “iLuminate” and “Lumia.”
These shows were truly mind-blowing. Had the word got out fully, there is no way that thisvenue could have contained the huge crowd that would likely have tried to purchase tickets. Thiswas world-class, Las Vegas-caliber entertainment, for little more than the price of ission to the Fairgrounds.
Billed as “An Electrifying Cirque,” Lumia combined “breathtaking acrobatics, mesmerizing lightdisplays, projection mapping, and stunning choreography” — “a spectacular combination ofcircus thrills, Vegas glamour, cutting-edge technology and mesmerizing effects.” As each newact appeared on-stage, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Surely they would not give us even more, andyet they did, over and over again. It left me nearly breathless.
The Del Mar Arena was the venue for numerous events, including equestrian competitions andthe Fair’s inaugural Native American Powwow — described in the event’s publicity as a “vibrantcultural gathering that celebrates indigenous traditions through music, dance, art andcommunity” with “colorful regalia, intricate dances, drum circles and singing.” Attendees could“also enjoy Native American arts and crafts vendors, traditional foods like fry bread and Indiantacos, as well as educational presentations on Native culture and history.”
Action-packed, exciting motorsports events extended over several days. These included Monstertrucks, flat track racing and, as the finale on the last day of the Fair, the ever-popularFirefighters’ Demolition Derby. I happened to choose to photograph the last round of this in asection of the grandstands filled with of what was ultimately the winners of the Derby.I intend to edit together a video of this, which you should be able to watch via a link in thisparticular column on the https://automatters.net website, within the next few weeks.
Musical performances on several stages entertained guests throughout the run of the Fair, fromthree sellout concerts on the Corona Grandstand Stage — part of the Toyota Summer Concertseries, to intimate bands and musicians on several of the smaller stages.
As always, the annual Fair has a huge economic impact on the community, providing“opportunities for workers, small businesses, entrepreneurs, entertainers, contractors and others.More than 1200 temporary employees were also hired directly by the District” (the 22nd DistrictAgricultural Association, which owns and operates the Del Mar Fairgrounds) — “which is inaddition to the employees hired by vendors, concessionaires and contractors — to produce the Fair.”
As the Fair’s wrap-up email told us, 877,452 fairgoers — an average of nearly 44,000 guestsdaily — attended the Fair. The busiest day of the Fair was the Juneteenth holiday (Wednesday,July 3), with more than 64,000 guests coming through the gates.
To explore a wide variety of content dating back to 2002, with the most photos and the latesttext, visit “AutoMatters & More” at https://automatters.net . Search by title or topic in the SearchBar in the middle of the Home Page, or click on the blue ‘years’ boxes and browse.
Copyright © 2024 by Jan Wagner – AutoMatters & More #847
