Key Takeaways
- 🎡 The 2026 OC Fair runs July 17 through August 16 in Costa Mesa, with carnival rides, live music, midway games, and classic fair food
- 🚚 Highlights include monster trucks, motorhome demolition derbies, racing pigs, livestock exhibits, petting animals, and cow-milking demonstrations
- 🎟️ Tickets start at $13, parking costs $15, and the weekend OC Fair Express offers $2 rides from six Orange County locations
Nothing says California summer quite like a day at the fair.
Just 45 minutes from Los Angeles, the 2026 OC Fair is back in Costa Mesa with monster trucks, pig races, carnival rides, live concerts, midway games, and all the deep-fried treats you could possibly crave. Running from July 17 through August 16, 2026, it’s one of Southern California’s biggest summer traditions, with tickets starting at just $13. The fair runs Wednesday through Sunday and stays open late, so you can spend the day on rides and family-friendly attractions, then stick around for glowing carnival lights, live concerts, and plenty of after-dark fun.
There’s plenty to keep you busy from morning until night. Watch monster trucks jump, smash, and flip across dirt tracks and junk cars from July 29 through August 2 at 7 p.m., or cheer as battered motorhomes crash their way through the demolition derby on August 5 and 12 at 7:30 p.m. For a cuter kind of competition, catch the All-Alaskan Racing Pigs at Plaza Pacifica, where they race several times each day. Over at the three-acre Centennial Farm, visitors can meet livestock, watch cow-milking demonstrations at 2:15, 4:15, and 6:15 p.m., or stop by the Great American Petting Farm to feed goats, sheep, pigs, and other animals…