It’s full STEAM ahead this weekend as Imaginology returns to the O.C. fairgrounds

Costa Mesa’s Orange County fairgrounds will transform this weekend into a playland with a purpose as Imaginology — an interactive festival focused on science, technology, engineering, art and math — STEAMs back into action.

More than 20,000 visitors came to the site last year to take part in hands-on science demonstrations, art activities and maker projects provided by more than 100 exhibitors during the free, two-day event.

Kids learned the science behind bubble-making, sharpened their wits on a larger-than-life chess set, played with robots, held baby chicks and made their own terrariums to take home, among other activities.

Kids gather at a “Chick Petting” area during Imaginology 2017 at the O.C. fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

(File Photo)

Orange County Fair & Event Center Chief Executive Michele Richards explained that, since 1989, organizers had produced a Youth Expo designed to showcase items created by kids of all ages in a competition format similar to the O.C. Fair.

When attendance began to fall off, organizers sat down and reimagined the festival as a place where participants could learn, play and explore different possibilities within the STEAM fields.

“We wanted kids of all ages to come to the event and do all kinds of hands-on activities in those fields and learn how their passions might turn into careers,” Richards said Tuesday. “It’s just a super-interactive event.”

Children can enjoy demonstrations on monarch butterflies and goat milking, browse titles in a Scholastic book fair, test their climbing skills on an American Ninja Warrior park just for kids or try out a boot camp at the onsite Heroes Hall veterans museum.

Kids build robots using Legos from the Lego Mind Store as part of the “Mathobotix” booth during the Imaginology event.

(File Photo)

Imaginology will also host an annual Dia del Niño (Day of the Child) celebration presented by Arts Orange County and Media Arts Santa Ana (MASA), which will offer live music, dance, circus workshops, engaging children’s art activities and community resource booths for families.

Inspired by a traditional holiday celebrated in Mexico each April, Dia del Niño aims to celebrate the importance of children and promote their well-being. The theme of this year’s festival is “Celebration of the Americas” (Celebración de las Américas).

“This is an entire weekend of nonstop activity,” Richards promised. “I count the success of the event by the number of kids who get dragged out of here kicking and screaming, ‘I don’t want to go home.’”

Sijin Joung, 8, attempts to form a bubble over the head of his classmate Ricardo Rocha, 7, at the Bubble Mania station during Imaginology 2019.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer )

Imaginology 2023 runs Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free, and parking costs $12. The Orange County fairgrounds are located at 88 Fair Drive in Costa Mesa.

For more information, including a schedule of events and activities, visit ocfair.com/imaginology or call (714) 708-1500.

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