Overview The San Diego County Fair fills the Del Mar Fairgrounds on the coast every June and July, and more than 1 in 4 San Diego adults go, by the fair's own count. Each year runs to a theme - "Get Out There!" in 2023, "Summer Pet-Tacular" in 2025, "Once Upon A Fair" in 2026 - around exhibits, livestock, rides, fried food and eight stages of entertainment, and headline concerts on the Grandstand Stage; in 2026 that was the Toyota Summer Concert Series on the Corona Grandstand Stage. It began in 1880 as an agricultural fair, the longest-running event in San Diego County, and has been held at Del Mar since the 1930s. The 22nd District Agricultural Association runs the fairgrounds and the fair. On site Gates open at 11 a.m., and in 2026 the fair ran 20 days, Wednesday through Sunday. Eight stages program entertainment every day. Four shopping halls hold the commercial vendors, and more than a dozen other buildings hold exhibits, contests and student showcases, beside the Junior Livestock Program. Grandstand concerts start at 7:30 p.m., and a concert ticket includes that day's fair admission. The fair debuts new fried food every year - fried Twinkies in 2007, fried butter in 2010 - and a 16-foot bronze of Don Diego, the character Tom Hernández played at the fair from 1947 to 1984, stands at the main entrance. The Fourth of July brings a parade and fireworks. Audience In the fair's 2024 guest survey, 73% of guests went through the exhibits, 72% came for the food and drink, 68% visited the animals and 60% shopped, while rides and games drew 48% and ticketed concerts 44%. The crowd comes from every part of San Diego County, with a large share from Orange and Riverside counties. Talent and Influencers The 2026 Grandstand bill ran from Chicago on opening night through Nelly, Maren Morris, AJR, Marshmello, Good Charlotte, Koe Wetzel, Demi Lovato and Warren Zeiders, alongside regional Mexican headliners Los Tucanes de Tijuana, Pancho Barraza with Banda Machos, El Coyote with Chuy Lizárraga, and Conjunto Primavera on the closing night. Raquel Welch, then a La Jolla High School student, was crowned Fairest of the Fair in 1958. Track record Attendance: 997,720 in 2023 over 22 days, 877,452 in 2024 over 20 days, about 874,000 in 2025 over 20 days. In 2014 the average day passed 60,000 visitors, and the fair ranked as the fourth-largest fair in North America. The 2024 fair won 37 Western Fair Association awards and 11 from the International Association of Fairs and Expositions. Mission Federal Credit Union says it gives out 120,000 fair tickets a year to the teachers, bus drivers and school facilities and nutrition staff of San Diego, and its staff sign up new members at the fair. Brand presence Each of the eight stages can carry a sponsor's name, which then runs on the stage itself and in the fair's paid print, TV, outdoor and digital advertising; in 2026 Toyota named the concert series and Corona the Grandstand Stage. Buildings and halls take naming partners too, as do individual exhibits and special events. Brands can build large-format displays indoors or out, sell from 10-by-10 and larger spaces in the four commercial halls, or bring a mobile tour or sampling footprint for a single day or a three-day weekend, in spaces from 10 by 10 up to 40 by 80 feet. Print banners and digital matrix boards run across the grounds.