[UPDATED: Early Attendance Numbers] Hide Your Gas-Guzzling Oldsmobiles, There's a Patience-Swallowing Epidemic on the 55: It's FAIRMAGEDDON!

By Chasen Marshall Fri., Jul. 15 2011 at 5:45 PM

Categories: Main, OC Fair View

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Chasen Marshall/OC Weekly

The traffic is here. Be patient.

UPDATE, JULY 15, 5:45 P.M.: By 3 p.m., the OC Fair had already had 32,439 people come through the gates, which was significantly up from last year's numbers at the same time. Last year, by the same time 24,164 had entered the fair. We estate that adds 32 to 51 minutes to a commute on the 55 Freeway. (Note: There is no science or math behind that estimate. Just pure BSing.)

ORIGINAL POST, JULY 15, 2:13 P.M.: And we in Orange County thought we wouldn't be bothered by the likes of Carmageddon, aside from maybe a few more LAites coming into town to use our beaches a bit earlier than the weekend. We have our own version of the traffic epidemic and it's taking place on the 55 Freeway as you read this. It's increasing in size by the minute. Tempers are flaring and car horns are ringing. It's FAIRMAGEDDON!

The OC Fair is supposed to be about making memories, testing the tolerance of your gag reflex and playing games that rarely pay out (remember, at the Fair, the House always wins!). It's not supposed to be about second-guessing your decision to overlook that 75,000 mile tune-up and having the hunk of junk overheat in mid-day Fair traffic

Oh, relax, it's probably nothing a few beers and a deep fried Twinkie can't handle.

If you were thinking going to the Orange County Fair on opening day was a good idea, because it was a weekday and the crowds may be a bit lighter, well, you were wrong. Unless you know some secret side-street equation for bypassing the freeway that would reward you with a parking space within a half-mile of the fairgrounds, you may just want to stay home and find a live feed somewhere on the internet. (One must exist.)

Our editor liked Farmegeddon (rhymes with Carmageddon, get it?) for the title of this outpouring of cars, but he was over-ruled in a straw pole of one.

Chasen Marshall/OC Weekly

If you're not already at the OC Fair, you're probably too late to try today--unless you believe that 'patience is a virtue' crap!

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