Bella the agriculture detecting dog offers a friendly handshake to the Driscoll’s robot last week inside the Harvest Building at the Santa Cruz County Fair. (Photos by Tarmo Hannula)

The attendance numbers for the Santa Cruz County Fair are still being totaled, but initial surveys indicate the fair had a pretty strong week, with overall profits up by 1 percent.

John Scurfield, deputy fair manager, said attendance was basically the same as last year, though some areas, such as revenue from parking and the carnival, were down. But strong sales in food and drink concessions made up the difference. The fair added a third beer vendor and Scurfield said that made a difference.

“Adding another beer booth helped our overall revenue, I think,” Scurfield said. “The carnival was down, parking was down, but revenue was up.”

Scurfield said big days on Friday and Sunday were the key. Saturday was slow, he said.

“Blue Oyster Cult packed them in on Friday,” he said. “We did really well that day. And Sunday saw a steady flow of guests. The charro show on Sunday, followed by the Mexican wrestling, was very popular — a big success.”

For the complete article see the 09-24-2009 issue.

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