LA County Fair 2026 Kickoff in Pomona

The LA County Fair is back in Pomona, and the useful part is simple: it already opened on Thursday, May 7, and it runs through Sunday, May 31, at Fairplex. This is the 2026 edition — the 104th anniversary fair — and the pitch this year is “Play Your Way,” which is basically a broad excuse to(lacountyfair.com)nival rides, livestock barns, pig races, concerts, art halls, weird food, or just walking around with a lemonade and people-watching. (lacountyfair.com) ### When is it actually open? Not every day. The fair is running on 17 days total — mostly Thursday through Sunday, plus Memorial Day on Monday, May 25. Regular hours are 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., though opening day had a later 5 p.m. start. That matters because a lot of people still assume the fair is a daily monthlong event, and it isn’t. (lacountyfair.com) ### What’s new this year? The theme is “Play Your Way,” and the fair is leaning hard into that idea across exhibits and programmi(lacountyfair.com)nd-arcade setup called Skate-R-Cade, Retro Row, and a long list of hands-on activities mixed in with the usual fair staples. Fairplex also billed this year’s opening as one day earlier than last year’s schedule. (fairplex.com) ### Is it s(lacountyfair.com)ts 40th year running the carnival, and the usual crowd-pleasers are here: rides, games, parades, Budweiser Clydesdales, barnyard races, petting-farm attractions, and the RailGiants train area. So even with the “play” branding, this is not some stripped-down reboot. It’s the familiar LA County Fair machine, just with a fresh wrapper. (lacountyfair.com) ### What about(fairplex.com) kimchi quesadillas, and a Dubai funnel cake — which tells you the fair is chasing novelty, not just nostalgia. But the bigger point is that the fair still mixes the expected fried-food chaos with more international and culturally specific options than the old stereotype suggests. (dailynews.com) ### Are there headlin(lacountyfair.com)on the calendar. The opening weekend includes WAR on Saturday, May 9, and Banda El Recodo with Banda Los Recoditos on Sunday, May 10. Later dates include Brad Paisley, The Driver Era, Common Kings, Zapp with Evelyn “Champagne” King, Jeff Dunham, and Ramon Ayala. (lacountyfair.com) ### Is there enough to do without rides? Definitely. The daily schedule includes flower(dailynews.com)educational demos at The Farm, and art-centered activities. That’s the catch with the fair if you haven’t gone in years — it’s easy to remember only the midway and miss how much of it is basically a giant rotating expo. (lacountyfair.com) ### Why does this kickoff matter? For Southern California, the LA (lacountyfair.com)s the campus hosts hundreds of events year-round, but this is the signature one — the thing that turns the Pomona grounds into a regional draw. Opening a day earlier than last year and running through Memorial Day weekend makes it an early-summer anchor, not just a one-weekend outing. (fairplex.com) ### Bottom line If yo(lacountyfair.com)s out it already started on Thursday, May 7. The real question now is what version you want — concert night, food crawl, family day, or pure nostalgia lap around the grounds. (lacountyfair.com)