As summer comes to an end the LA County Fair is just arriving. I went to the Fair opening weekend so that I could create a list of hacks to help you get the most bang for your buck. Come prepared with plenty of sunscreen, empty water bottles, and comfortable shoes.
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LA County Fair Hacks
Discounted Tickets to the LA County Fair
At the gate and online without a discount, tickets will be $20 for an adult.
Participating Ralphs Grocery Stores and Superior Grocers are offering $12 tickets for adults with an optional coupon for discounted wristbands for the rides. The coupon gives you the chance to pay $37 for the wristband but you can only use it Wednesday through Friday.
O’Reilly Auto Parts is offering tickets and wristbands for a total of $29 for Wild Wednesdays. You must show your receipt at the ticket booth. Valid 9/4, 9/11/, 9/18.
Check your Subway receipt for an offer for $29 admission with ride wristband. This offer is good for 9/5, 9/12, 9/18.
Costco is offering one of the best deals for the fair. For $59.99 you can get 4 single-day tickets, one parking pass and 44 ride and game tickets.
School Supplies Wednesday gives you the chance to get free admission in exchange for bringing in 5 new packaged school supplies. Suggested school supplies: boxes of crayons, boxes of markers, boxes of pencils, notebooks, glue stick packs, packages of lined notebook paper, pencil cases, packages of erasers, packages of highlighters. Valid 9/4, 9/11, 9/18.
Senior Wednesdays is available to those 60+ from 12pm to 5pm. Valid 9/4, 9/11, 9/18.
Food Drive Thursdays 12pm – 5 p.m. Donate five canned goods (per person) and receive one free admission that day only. Valid 9/5, 9/12, 9/19.
Resident Discount Days is the deal I took advantage of. I went on LA County Resident day. The code I needed was available on the LA County Fair website. Your billing zip code must be for the area the resident day is for. My ticket came to $12.50 with tax.
Parking
It costs $15 to park at the fair. You can park at the Pomona Transit Center and take the Foothill Transit line 22 to the front gate. I parked in the lot for free and it is a $3 roundtrip cash. Must have exact change. If you have a TAP card it will be $1.25.
Food
The food at the fair can get expensive very quickly. Did you know that you can bring your own food in as long as it is in disposable containers? Water bottles are fine as well as long as they come in empty. Warning about the water bottles though. There is only one filling station and no Guest Relations workers seemed to know where it was. I tweeted to the fair asking about it and they said it was by the restroom SouthWest of the clock tower. I never found it but the Guest Relations workers told us that the stands have to give you ice and water if you ask for it.
Several of the food stands at the fair have $6.50 items that are listed as pop items. My boyfriend and I tried Strawberry dole whip as one of the pop items which we loved.
Rides & Games
The best deal for the rides and games is either the Costco Deal I mentioned above in the discount tickets section. Or the admission and wristband deal from Subway and O’Reilly Auto Parts. There is also the option of Passport Savings. Honestly, when I checked it out I wasn’t super impressed by it. But, if you’d like to see if it would be a good purchase for you to take a look here.
Attractions and Exhibits
The theme of this year’s fair is POP. My favorite part of the fair was the pop architecture area which paid tribute to a lot of landmarks in the Los Angeles area. I loved seeing the miniature tributes to locations that have a lot of meaning to me. There was a Griffith Park tribute, LACMA, Angels Flight, and more.
There was a small area over by the pop architecture exhibit where you could play games and just relax with your family and friends. It was nice to see that not everything at the fair would require money.
Concerts
In previous years free tickets have been given out for the concerts on the day of the show. Beginning at 2 p.m. at the ticket booth on Rose Ave. Tickets are given away on a first-come, first-serve basis. Please note that this is not guaranteed and I am still trying to verify that this offer is still valid. The free concert tickets do not include fair admission but regular concert tickets do.
Looking for another fun summer family activity? I loved going to the 626 Night Market for the first time this year.
