Sonoma County Fair 2023
The Sonoma County Fair this year is running August 3 to 13, and we went on the first Friday night. It was a hot and sunny day, perfect for summer fun.
We paid $62 for a Family Pack - three adults (we only used two), two kids (our youngest was under the age limit to need a separate ticket), and a parking pass. For the Family Pack, you had to purchase it before the fair opened August 3.
We probably should have expected this, but even with a parking pass, there were long lines to get into the lot at 4:30 when we arrived. The website made it seem as though there were separate lots, but it all appeared to be one large lot with one entrance.
The Fair used Evolv for security screening which I’ve seen before at a music show at the House of Blues in Anaheim. It made entry easier and faster due to no metal detectors and more efficient lines.
I had seen some of the negative Fair reviews on Yelp and hoped they were unwarranted, but I do understand them better now. The Fair’s approach is too extractive for my taste - requiring a separate non-transferable wristband for each ride-goer, which seemed to be a minimum $20 and included a $2 setup fee. So in addition to the $62 for us to attend the fair, we then immediately paid $80 - one wristband for me and three for the kids. This got us each $18 of ride credits, which I replenished for each kid by ~$5 each later in the evening.
Many of the first rides we saw seemed to be for older kids.
But then we found some that were a better fit for our kids (ages 8, 6, and 3.5).
Our kids seemed to enjoy the fun house type of rides better at this age than the larger rollercoasters. At least a couple of the more thrilling rides had height requirements a bit beyond our kids anyway.
One disappointing issue we encountered is that the schedule changed from the website to the actual event. This resulted in us missing the “Crazy Animal Races” and the “juggler extraordinaire”.
One schedule change that worked in our favor was the magic show. We saw Godfrey the Magician who put on a great show that kids and adults alike enjoyed.
And of course, what would a fair be without fair food?
As you might expect, the food options were mostly fried and unhealthy. We shared two bacon-wrapped hot dogs (pretty good), pulled pork sandwich (just ok), regular fries (just ok), chip-like fries (not good), cherry lemonade (just ok), funnel cake (great!), and deep fried oreos (great!). We weren’t the only ones at the fair who were basically laughing, dismayed by the extractive captive audience pricing on the food and drinks. We paid a total of $115 for what I listed above, and we wouldn’t buy any of that again I don’t think, except for the desserts which were delicious :)
So all in, we paid $62 for early release tickets/parking + $80 for ride wristbands + $16 for additional rides (kids rode maybe 5-6 rides each for about $24 worth of ride credits each) + $115 for food and one drink = $273 for a night at the fair. Prices for rides only are slightly higher than Train Town in Sonoma and Legoland Discovery Center but with greater variety, and much higher than Funderland in Sacramento, which is our kids’ favorite “local” amusement park. Of course, Disneyland and Legoland are much more expensive, but the rides and food are far better and there’s more of an experience in just walking around the parks.
Based on this experience, I’m not sure if we’ll go to the fair next year. It seemed like something that we’d check out maybe once every few years vs. every year. The kids might enjoy it more when they are a bit older and can go / want to go on the more thrilling rides, especially with friends. Maybe next time we’ll eat our meal beforehand so we just get a snack or two and desserts, and skip the overpriced mediocre meals and drinks.
We have another fair coming up this weekend: the Gravenstein Apple Fair, so it will be fun to compare and contrast after!