Danny Visoso was one of the first ones in line Friday morning with a crowd of eager fairgoers waiting for the gates to open for the start of the 2025 OC Fair.
“I wanted to spend time with my family and have a good summer with them,” Visoso said.
Visoso, 24, hadn’t been to the fair in more than a decade. After all those years waiting, how would he spend his day on the fairgrounds?
“Hopefully get on all the rides, because I know there’s going to be a lot of people coming in,” he said. “And get some good food.”
The 2025 OC Fair will run through Aug. 17 — it is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. The grills were fired up when the gates opened and very quickly, attractions were swirling people through the air.
The 23-day event is expected to bring in more than a million guests. Daily attendence has been capped since the onset of the pandemic and popular days sell out each year.
New activities this year include an after-dark event at the Plaza Pacifica that will get people moving with swing dancing, Latin music and more on select nights.
New attractions, food and stands, including Tom’s Puffs and Pie and the 180-foot-tall Aviator, have also been added to the mix.
Each year, hundreds of residents submit entries to the fair’s competitions. Everything from quilts to cupcakes to table settings.
With a list of his family’s 20 entries, Long Beach resident and event planner Dan Smith Chavira rushed to the glass cases displaying the winning entries, searching for any blue ribbon wins. This is his second year submitting baked goods with his family. His niece had been perfecting her eight recipes for months, he said.
“This is the moment when you can first see the results,” Smith Chavira said. “So we doorbusted to see how we did.”
His Portuguese Focaccia, inspired by his Italian grandmother and Portuguese grandfather, won the focaccia class and an overall award for the artisan leavened bread division.
He turned in his focaccia earlier in the week, as well as his Yuzu bar that won an honorable mention in the citrus bar category. Smith Chavira says he only bakes for the OC Fair.
“I’m not a baker, but I’m a competitor,” Smith Chavira said. His focaccia beat out 24 other entries in his category, decided by a panel of 13 judges.
He was the only division winner in his family.
He called this year’s win a “redemption” after his “overdone” French onion focaccia garnered no accolades last year. This year, he told himself, “Don’t overcook it, slow down, cook to your skill level, and relax.”
Even without any entries in the competition, Anaheim couple LuAnn Hillman and Steve Rosco made an early stop in the OC Promenade hall to see the winners.
“We see all the talent that’s in Orange County. Look at these bakers and what they’ve done,” Hillman said.
They’ve been visiting the fair for more than 40 years. And each year, they go on the first day. They say it’s the best time to catch the food entries, “when everything’s fresh.”
“It’s beautiful,” Rosco added. “It’s not professional like when you go into a bakery, these are regular average people that have these incredible, wonderful talents.”