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Live May 05, 2023
The LA County Fair in 2012. | Photo courtesy of Alanthebox/Wikimedia Commons (CC By 1.0)
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The 94th Los Angeles County Fair, the second to begin in May, opens its 16-day run Friday at Fairplex in Pomona with the theme “Spring Into Fair: Where Fun Blooms,” celebrating flower power.
The theme will be incorporated into all aspects of the fair, “sprouting learning in agriculture, planting thrills in the carnival, filling bags from the shopping harvest and cultivating palates for the best in fair foods,” according to Renee Hernandez, its director of communications.
There will be more than 1,200 menu items available. New items include:
— Cap’t Chicken Sandwich — an extra crispy fried chicken breast strip coated with a honey raspberry glaze and topped with Cap’n Crunch cereal;
— Hot Cheeto Cheese Pickle Pizza — New York-style pizza crust with a white creamy dill sauce topped with mozzarella cheese, extra thick crispy, lightly brine crinkle-cut pickles and topped with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos;
— Loco Elote Ramen Noodle Cup — a spicy ramen noodle with broth, topped with sweet juicy corn, topped again with Parmesan cheese, spices and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos;
— Deep-Fried S’More — jumbo marshmallows on a stick, covered in chocolate sauce, coated in crushed graham; and
— Deep-Fried Hot Cheetos Pot Stickers — pot stickers deep fried in a light Cheetos batter, then tossed in a house-made
Other new food items include vegan Mexican food from El Chef — quesadillas, steak tacos and steak nachos — and Kenyan food from Rafikiz Foodz, including vegan options of collard greens, green cabbage, plantain stew and black-eyed peas as well as sambuas in the flavors of lentil, potato, spinach, coconut cream cheese, beef and chicken.
The carnival includes three new rides — Sea Ray, a swinging pirate ship; Injection Seat, a sling-shot ride; and the thrill rider Joker 360.
There will be more than 400 animals in the Big Red Barn, including 150 in the petting zoo, billed as the nation’s largest petting zoo.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art will have its first exhibition at the fair, “You Are Here: California Photography Now,” contemporary photographs from its collection encompassing a range of concepts and approaches to visualizing the state.
The fair’s concert series begins Friday with the funk/rock/soul band War. Other artists set to perform include John Fogerty (Saturday); Lady A (May 130); Jellly Roll (May 19); and Chaka Kahn and George Benson (May 20).
The theme for the Flower and Garden Pavilion is “Hands That Cultivate,” an exploration of all cultures that cultivate and remain connected to the key elements of life and nature — the sun, moon, stars, soil, water and “Seeds of life,” Hernandez said.
The opening three days have been designated as Latinx Weekend, with music, food, shopping and the cultures of Latin American celebrated in Plaza de las Americas.
Admission Friday was $5 when purchased in advance, $30 at the gate. In a first, the fair has instituted “calendar pricing,” with lower prices earlier in the run. Tickets for fairgoers ages 13-59 purchased in advance online are $15 Saturday and Sunday, and the three Thursdays, May 11, 18 and 25, $18 May 12-14; $21 May 19-21 and $25 May 26-29.
Tickets for children ages 6-12 and seniors 60 and older purchased in advance online are $10 from Saturday through May 18 and May 25, and $12 May 19- 21 and May 26-29.
The fair will be open from 5-11 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m.-11 p.m. for the remainder of its run, which ends Memorial Day, May 29. The fair will be closed Mondays through Wednesdays, except on its final day.
Parking is $17 in advance online and $22 at the gate.
Payment for parking, admission and concert tickets are cashless.
The fair which evolved from a commercial-industrial show first held along the Southern Pacific railroad siding in downtown Pomona in 1921. It proved so successful that the businessmen who produced it held the first Los Angeles County Fair in October 1922.
The fair was shifted from September last year because of high temperatures, said Walter Marquez, Fairplex’s president and CEO.
The fair has been held annually at Fairplex since 1922, except from 1942-47, when the facility was being used by the U.S. Army, including as a prisoner of war camp for German and Italian soldiers and a relocation camp for Japanese Americans, and 2020 and 2021.
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