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News Archive for Orange County Fair & Event Center

Q & A 07.09.09 8:00 AM

Orange County Super Fair's Steven Beazley on Adding a Week and a $2.5 Million Exhibit to the Event

O.C. Fair & Event Center president and C.E.O. Steven Beazley
Photo: Courtesy of O.C. Fair & Event Center

FROM LOS ANGELES Steven Beazley, president and C.E.O. of the O.C. Fair & Event Center, began his 33-year career with the fair organization at 12 years old, as a sweeper at the end of the daily parade. In the decade since he's worked for the organization full time, he's overseen the O.C. Super Fair's ascent from 34th to 13th largest fair in North America, with an expected 2009 attendance of 1.1 million. This year's fair runs from July 10 through August 9—a week longer than in the past year. It will also include a new big-scale exhibit and 3-D movie called Al's Brain in conjunction with Weird Al Yankovic.

Why add a week to the fair?
We always look at our attendance numbers. The philosophy we work under is that everybody wants to be where everybody else is unless everybody’s there. The only way to take some pressure off crowds and decrease lines was to add some dates. It’s very difficult for a general-admission event to be called sold out. But the quality of experience goes down beyond a certain point. When a line gets 15 people long, you know something’s got to be done about that.

That sounds like a good problem to have.
It’s a problem based on our successes. We’re very happy to be grappling with things like that. The county is still growing by about 1.5 percent a year. We need to be mindful to accommodate that growth by giving people good experiences at the fair and keep them coming back. We're always focusing on growing at the same rate as the county.

The key to [our significant growth] is listening to the community and really meeting the needs of what their interests are. What do they want to see? When you’re really listening is when you start attracting the most people. MORE >>

Orange County Fair & Event Center, Orange County Super Fair, Ralphs, Weird Al Yankovic

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