By Mario A. Cortez 

San Diego truly was “mad about the fair” this year. The San Diego County Fair has finished its biggest run ever with over 1.6 million attendees crossing the turnstiles this year to take part of this summer’s festivities.

The fair, which began on June 3, ran for 26 days until this past Monday, July 4. Over the course of the fair, attendees had the chance to experience over 50 concerts featuring many fan favorites in both Spanish and English such as Carly Rae Jepsen, Espinoza Paz, Three Doors Down, Los Tigres Del Norte, Ozomatli, and Michael McDonald.

Fair organizers revealed some stats on activity at the fairgrounds and the numbers are impressive.

Total attendance this year was 1,609,481 guests; smashing 2012’s previous record-attendance of 1,517,508 guests. The busiest day at the 2016 SD County Fair was Sunday July, 3 which saw 96,501 guests enjoy themselves at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, an attendance which is among the top five highest single-day attendance numbers ever.

This year’s one-millionth attendee crossed the gates on June, 26. A small ceremony was held at the entrance where a lucky Rancho Bernardo resident was presented with lifetime admission to the fair, free concert fair tickets, and gifts from several exhibitors at this year’s fair.

Out of this record setting attendance, only 2,600 thrillseekers dared to take the plunge from the fair’s bungee jump, fair organizers reported. The youngest high-flying daredevil this year was a seven-year-old. There were 60 people, however, who backed out once it was time to jump.

Food at the fair is always a huge draw and this year was no exception. Fair favorites Chicken Charlie debuted a massive waffle which contained chicken inside this year; needless to say this treat was a runaway success. According to fair organizers, over 20,000 hot dogs were consumed by attendees and over 50,000 ears of corn were sold by the Corn Star stand on the fair’s midway.

Dates, attractions, and events  for the 2017 San Diego County Fair will be revealed next spring.