DEL MAR – This year's San Diego County Fair attendance was 30,000 short of last year's record-setting crowds.

The 21-day fair, which ended Sunday, drew 1,235,698 people, compared with last year's 1,265,997, fair officials said. Still, the average daily attendance was 58,843, the largest in fair history.

If the fair had run 22 days, as it does most years, another attendance record probably would have been set. Fair officials decided to delay opening day to alleviate traffic on what was also the first day of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Torrey Pines.

San Diego County Fair by the numbers 2,000 pounds Amount of fried frog legs eaten 2.4 million Rides taken in the Fun Zone and Kiddieland 24,424 Blue ribbons awarded 1,344 Pie slices consumed in the pie-eating contest 47 Jalapeños choked down by the winner of the Jalapeño Pepper Eating Contest 4,000 Fried Spam patties consumed 2,000 Entertainers who performed on the fair's nine stages 374 Animals shown at the Junior Livestock Auction SOURCE: San Diego County Fair

The largest turnout for a single day this year was 87,176 on the Fourth of July, fair officials said. The largest single-day attendance ever was July 3, 1998, when 101,867 people turned out for Van Halen Day.

This year, 500 retail and 100 food vendors sold goods at the fair. Rides grossed nearly $6.42 million, up almost 2 percent from 2007.

The fair also recycled most of its waste. Of the 1,926 tons of trash collected, 1,433 were either composted or recycled, fair officials said. This earned the fairgrounds $20,700 in revenue and saved $24,158 in landfill fees.

Amid high gas prices, the number of people arriving on free shuttles also increased to 12 percent of all fair-goers, up from 10 percent last year.

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Monica Unhold is a Union-Tribune intern.