OC Fair guests go for repeat fun as event heads into final weekend
As the OC Fair wraps up its last week in Costa Mesa, attendees are still lining up at the gates for the event’s fried foods, ice attractions and performances. Some are entering for the first time this summer while others are returning to the big party for more fun.
Stephen Michaels, a juggler and chair balancer from the Russell Bros. Family Circus, stood by the ground’s Green Gate entrance to juggle his red clubs while greeting attendees as he has at the start of every fair day.
“Every morning, we’ve had hundreds of people walk through,” he said.
Delia Sanchez from Santa Ana has been to the fair three times this summer.
“I like to do something different every time I’m here,” Sanchez said. “First, I came with my friends and we love the crafts exhibits and table-setting competitions. Then I went with my husband because he loves the concerts and the pig races. Now, I’m here with my nieces and nephew for the rides and the food.”
This time, the first stop of the day for her, her three nieces and her nephew was the fair’s Ice Museum.
“When you walk in, you’ll first see a castle and it looks like something straight out of ‘Frozen,’” Sanchez’s 17-year-old niece Andrea Castro said. “The fair is a great end-of-the-summer event. It’s the one thing I have to do before school starts.”
When it comes to the food, Sanchez said she will always purchase at least one item that’s deep-fried.
“Any weird, deep-fried food, I’ll try,” she said. “I always look forward to whatever is new.”
The fair’s food debuts this year included Pickle O’ Pete’s Koolickle, a pickle dipped in Kool-Aid, and Texas Donuts’ Fireball Donut, where the pastry’s glaze is infused with Fireball Whiskey.
As of early afternoon Friday, Chicken Charlie’s sold 26 of their $125 deep-fried Caviar Twinkies, another item making its debut this year. The special price for the food item was dedicated to the OC Fair’s 125th anniversary this year.
“All the people that have had it loved it,” Chicken Charlie’s owner Charlie Boghosian said. “They all said it was amazing, the salty and sweet combination of flavors.”
Boghosian likes to describe the Twinkie as “a bite of the ocean.”
The deep-fry enthusiast said he is still debating whether or not he will bring the Caviar Twinkie back the following summer.
“I might work on something new for next year,” he said with a grin.
Laurie Rooney from Costa Mesa took her two sons and nephew to the OC Fair for a second time. While their first visit was an 11-hour trip filled with rides and food, she said her sons and nephew wanted to come back a second time specifically for one thing only — the ice rink, known as Fairenheit 32 degrees.
This was the fair’s first year of opening a rink made of real ice.
“There’s three reasons why I like the ice skating rink,” Rooney’s 9-year-old son Alec Rooney said. “For one, it’s fun. Two, it’s fun. And three? It’s so much fun.”
Rooney added, “The first time we came to the fair, the afternoon time was so hot. We went to the ice rink just to cool off. We weren’t planning on going here but when we did [the boys] absolutely loved it.”
The group of four said they hope the OC Fair will bring back the ice rink next summer.
The OC Fair will run until its last day on Sunday. The event is open 10 a.m. to midnight on Saturday and Sunday at 88 Fair Drive in Costa Mesa.
General admission is $12; Seniors ages, 60 and older, and children 6-12 are $7; children ages 5 and under are free.