As coronavirus cases continue to surge across the state and Orange County finds itself again under stay-at-home orders, Orange County Fair & Event Center officials are looking ahead to 2021 and envisioning a modified event that would limit crowd capacity and allow for social distancing.
The small group of organizers responsible for planning the massive O.C. Fair changed course in late April, canceling the regional attraction — which draws 1.4 million visitors each year — at the expense of $36 million in lost revenue.
Planners retooled yet again over the summer, offering a virtual O.C. Fair that allowed teens to auction livestock online and featured juried competitions where locals showed off photos of their best Zoom backgrounds, pandemic haircuts and shelter-in-place baking attempts.
The O.C. fairgrounds at Costa Mesa have since offered Fair Food Drive-Thru weekends and played host to a stream of drive-in concerts, shows and spectacles, most recently the holiday light extravaganza Night of Lights O.C. which runs through Jan. 10.
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