Fairground officials, vendors and fairgoers are excited to have annual tradition restored
At 9:10 a.m. Wednesday, Joshua Barrett and Jacqueline Orellano showed up at the Del Mar Fairgrounds and became first in line for opening day of the 2022 San Diego County Fair.
This year’s fair features more than 280 sales vendors, 110 food providers, 21 nights of free concerts in the Paddock and 15 nights of grandstand concerts and comedy shows, not to mention several small stages of live entertainment and the ever-popular Swifty Swine pig races.Traditionally, the San Diego County event is the first major fair of the season for the vendors who ply the national fair circuit.
In the next aisle, longtime fair merchants Edie and Carlos Borel of Louisiana were setting up their sales booth for the Gripstic, a slide-on plastic clip that keeps chips and other snack bags fresh, priced at 12 for $25. The Borels also took part in the L.A. fair in May and said they had long lines of customers every day. The Borels took part last summer in Home Grown Fun, a vastly scaled down version of the San Diego County Fair and their sales exceeded expectations.
Gigi Horowitz is co-owner of Mom’s Bakeshop, which has had a small booth in the Exhibit Hall for the past 26 years. This year, her Orange County bakery has opened its own booth on the fair’s main promenade, where cookies are baked and served fresh all day. She said sales at the L.A. fair last month were up 25 percent from pre-pandemic levels.
Stilt walkers great attendees on opening day of the San Diego County Fair on June 8 at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.