WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Ticket holders to the South Florida Fair will see an extra charge at the gate of $10 for parking. The fair said inflation and supply chain issues are driving up costs.
"Our advance ticket is $10 and we have not raised [our] ticket price since 2004. It's been 18 years at the $10 price," said Vicki Chouris, President and CEO of the South Florida Fair.
In 2020, the South Florida Fair experimented with not charging kids 10 and under admission, previously, children five and under were not charged. "We wanted to keep that in place for people, [so] in order to offset that loss of revenue, we looked at other ways that we could increase our revenues so that we could deal with the inflation that's going on," said Chouris.
The fair is offering a free park and ride service at the Mall at Wellington Green. Fairgoers will be able to purchase admission and ride tickets at the mall and then be dropped off inside the fair gates. "The bus actually comes, it's police-escorted, [and] it drops you off inside right by the Expo Center," said Chouris.
Officials say round trip from the mall takes about 20 minutes. The park and ride service is available on Saturdays, Sundays, and on $2 Tuesdays. Chouris said that it costs about $200,000 to operate the park and ride service and she anticipates the new parking fee to offset the cost.
"You go to a sporting event, you go to a concert, you go places they charge for parking. [We're] one of the last ones to do it, but we needed to make it happen," said Chouris.
