Fair Cuts Fees After Journal Error

Expo New Mexico slashed admission fees for many fair-goers on Tuesday after the Journal’s State Fair special section last week incorrectly reported admission would only be $2 on Tuesday.

A correction published Saturday explained there had been an error and standard admission prices would apply.

“However, the Fair realizes that a printed correction does little good, so in the spirit and interest of goodwill, the Fair will honor $2 admission,” State Fair officials wrote in a press release issued later Tuesday.

The State Fair initially was charging the regular $10 admission price Tuesday morning, but after a number of people demanded the $2 price, fair officials dropped admission to $2 for the remainder of the day.

“We misinterpreted a listing on the State Fair website for “Two Dollar Tuesday” as applying to the price of admission when it applied only to midway carnival discounts,” Journal Editor Kent Walz said Tuesday.

“The incorrect price was included in our State Fair section published last week. The fair requested a correction, and we published one on Saturday.

“While the fair made the decision to honor the incorrect price in the calendar listing, we certainly regret the error.”

The fair has requested some additional advertising, and publishing company officials are discussing that possibility.

Meanwhile, fair-goers will get another break today.

Independently of what transpired Tuesday, the State Fair is offering free gate admission all day today. The free day was announced earlier this week.

“It’s the best way we can think of to make the fair available to the largest number of people,” said State Fair General Manager Dan Mourning. “We want every New Mexican to be able to enjoy the event we’ve worked so hard to put together, and we understand that the economy is still pretty tough out there for most people in our state.”