While there are still six days until the gates officially open for the 2026 Stanislaus County Fair, the fairgrounds were abuzz with activity all week long.
“We have tents going up, beer trailers being put into place, the health department is out here doing inspections, golf carts are being delivered and we’re also preparing for the Fourth of July celebration, which is here tomorrow night, in the middle of everything else,” said Fair CEO Kim Williams on Thursday.
It takes months of work and dozens of dedicated employees and volunteers to prepare the fairgrounds for the county fair, which draws over 200,000 visitors each year.
According to Williams, there are record numbers of livestock exhibitor entries, specifically turkeys and beef cattle. And exhibits overall — which includes everything from floriculture to ag mechanics and livestock — are up about 4,000 entries this year.
Brenda Trantham, who is in charge of the Farm Bureau Exhibition Building, was busy Thursday with her team judging exhibits and getting all the displays organized. On Thursday, they were judging jams and jellies in the morning and then educational display boards. The Exhibition Building is a busy place during the fair. It not only is home to the numerous displays of art work, fruits and vegetable entries and Ag in the Classroom chicken statues, but it also plays host to the special contests like ugliest decorated cake, watermelon eating, cookie decorating, milk chugging and pie eating.
Over in the Floriculture building, superintendent Candy Silveria and her team were working hard on Thursday getting flowers planted, displays arranged and helping the various youth exhibitors get their entries into place. She said every year there are new designs.
“This year, we have upcycle, downcycle and celebrating 250 years,” said Silveria.
While Trantham and Silveria were busy getting their respective exhibition areas ready for fairgoers, fair time operations manager Steve Torres spent Thursday moving from area to area making sure everything was running smoothly. This will be Torres’ 27th year working at the fair and second as fair time operations manager.
“Things are looking good, we’re on schedule. Each day we progress,” said Torres.
While Torres said his main objective is to make sure families have a fun and safe time at the fair this year, he’s already looking to the next fair.
“When this fair is over, we’ll go right into planning for next year. We’ll take some of the notes that we got from this year’s fair, and we’ll get ready for next year,” he said.
The Stanislaus County Fair is set to open on Friday for its 10-day run. Presale ticket information is available at stancofair.com. Look in Wednesday’s Turlock Journal for our annual Fair preview magazine with daily schedules and information on entertainment and more.
