OC Fair turns 125 with cake, cocktails, ice skating and sand
The OC Fair turns 125 this year. And it’s seeking wisdom in its advanced age.
The annual summer extravaganza, which begins Friday and ends Aug. 16, has adopted “One Big Party” as its official slogan for 2015 — and, as befits any birthday bash, cake and drinks are in the offing.
So, for that matter, are a pair of installations that explain where cake and drinks come from. In between the copious amounts of liquor and sweets offered on the premises, there’s always room for education.
When visitors duck out of the hot sun into the OC Promenade building, they’ll encounter “Cakeology” and “Sip,” which feature exhibits and live demonstrations about the process — and even the history — of crafting a birthday treat or alcoholic beverage.
“Because it was the fair’s 125th birthday, I thought it was only reasonable to do cake and a toast,” said Renee Fontes, the fair’s culinary coordinator. “But we like to do a little bit more about the agriculture angle, because we’re an agriculture association. And it’s kind of fitting to show how things were raised and brought from farm, basically, to market.”
A team from the Mixing Glass, a craft cocktail lifestyle store in Costa Mesa, will be on hand to show how to mix drinks, while other performers will demonstrate the art of mixing through tossing — a skill, Fontes noted, depicted memorably in the 1988 Tom Cruise film “Cocktail.” The cake exhibit, likewise, will outline the steps of baking and display the winners of a local cake-designing contest.
The culinary exhibits are only some of the new attractions this year at the fair, which will also debut an ice-skating rink and the new Plaza Arts Stage live performance area. In addition, past attractions such as an ice museum, cattle drive and massive sand sculpture will return this summer.
For the first time ever, the Pacific Amphitheatre, which hosts the fair’s highest-profile concerts, will contain a passageway to the main fairgrounds. The amphitheater’s Toyota Summer Concert Series, which was scheduled to begin with the 1970s pop band America and the Pacific Symphony on Thursday night, will include such names as Willie Nelson, the Steve Miller Band and Berlin, as well as the annual Happy Together Tour, which brings a lineup of 1960s veterans.
The Plaza Arts Stage, located nearby, will host performances by community groups during the day. In the evening, sand artist Joe Castillo and comedian-hypnotist Mark Yuzuik will alternate for the course of the fair.
Sandscapes, which last appeared at the fair in 2013, will carve a 300-ton block of sand into a sculpture through early August. Greg Glenn, the company’s owner, would only say that the design’s theme had something to do with “party animals.”
“We are here till the sixth and it will be built all the way out to the pavement,” he said. “And beautiful, guaranteed.”
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IF YOU GO
What: OC Fair
Where: OC Fair & Event Center, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa
When: Noon to midnight Wednesdays through Fridays; 10 a.m. to midnight Saturdays and Sundays, July 17 through Aug. 16
Cost: $12 general admission (ages 13 to 59); $7 for seniors (60 and older) and youth (6 to 12); free for children 5 and younger
Information: (714) 708-1500 or www.ocfair.com