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It took her until the last day, but Delores Martin said nothing was going to keep her from experiencing this year's State Fair.

"I'm glad we made it to the fair. It's very pleasant," Martin, who lives in Mountainair, said Sunday. "It's a festival environment."

Fair organizers were also feeling festive as the 17-day run closed Sunday. Attendance this year stood at 690,000 as of Saturday; organizers thought it might just top last year's record of 738,000 when Sunday's tickets were counted.

"Any time we reach over 700,000, that's a successful fair," said Luke Otero, vice chairman of the Commission for Expo New Mexico.

Fred Peralta, outgoing general manager for Expo New Mexico, said the numbers look great, even if they don't beat last year.

"There's between 1.8 and 1.9 million (people) in the state and over 700,000 of them come to the fair," Peralta said. "That's a tremendous penetration per capita."

Peralta announced Sunday that he will step down as Expo general manager at the end of this year.

A rise in the admission price, from $5 last year to $7 this year, didn't seem to affect attendance, fair officials said. However, the busiest day was dollar admission day, which brought in about 80,000 people.

Officials said 36,175 people went to performances at Tingley Coliseum this year.

Aside from attendance, other successes included the improvements made on the fairgrounds, said Peralta.

One of those achievements was security, which officials have been working closely with for a few years.

"We used to have a reputation of not being a place to be because it was unsafe," Peralta said.

However, over the past few years, Expo New Mexico has worked more closely with its security department, State Police, Albuquerque police, Albuquerque fire marshals and state fire marshals to improve the grounds.

"They are on top of things immediately," said Peralta, referring to fights at the midway or other disturbances.

Peralta also said officials have made tremendous strides to improve cleanliness.

They rearranged their crews to do more roaming around to make sure bathrooms and other facilities were clean at all times.

"We have made a real concerted effort to make sure things are clean and looking good," he said.

Otero said the weather this year was also a factor in the fair's success.

"We basically had a day-and-a-half of bad weather in a 17-day run. That's pretty good," he said.

Attendance dropped by about 10,000 during the rainy day Thursday, he said.

As of Saturday's count, the fair had made $550,000 in revenue so far this year, Peralta said.

Some of the most popular attractions this year were the Welde's Big Bear Show and the new location of the Ford Bold Moves stage, which featured national musical acts, Peralta said.

Otero said he thinks old-fashioned fair favorites were the most sought after this year.

"The first week of the fair, the livestock proves to be the most popular," he said.

An electronic survey given to 3,500 fairgoers showed that 84 percent were pleased with their experience, Peralta said.

More than 82 percent of those surveyed came last year, and 90 percent said they were going to come next year.

"Some people come back for food, the rides, the rodeo concerts and the agriculture exhibits," he said. "It's a little slice of everything. That's the core of the fair."