The Sonoma County Fairgrounds is a fairground and exhibition center located in

Santa Rosa, California Santa Rosa (Spanish language, Spanish for "Rose of Lima, Saint Rose") is a city in and the county seat of Sonoma County, California, Sonoma County, in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay A ...

. It is where the annual

Sonoma County Sonoma County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 488,863. Its seat of government and largest city is Santa Rosa. Sonoma County comprises the Santa Rosa-Petaluma ...

fair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Fairs showcase a wide range of go ...

takes place and other events throughout the year.

History

Historically, the fairgrounds has held

horse race Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...

s. Racing at the fairgrounds started in 1936. The Gravenstein Apple Show Classic was held at the fairgrounds, as part of the Sonoma County Fair, until 1938.

Facilities

The fairgrounds feature a horse-racing track and jockey club, a golf course, several open-air amphitheaters, and multiple buildings. The largest hall at the fairgrounds is Grace Pavilion a indoor arena which can seat 4,400 people. It houses exhibits during the fair and is used throughout the year for concerts, fights, and other events.

Annual events

There are a number of annual events that take place at the fairgrounds, including the Sonoma County Fair. The fair takes place each July and participants experience music,

carnival rides Amusement rides, sometimes called carnival rides, are mechanical devices or structures that move people to create fun and enjoyment. Rides are often perceived by many as being scary or more dangerous than they actually are. This could be due to ...

farm animal Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

s, food and horse races. The Sonoma Valley Harvest Fair is a wine festival. It takes place each October and attendees can partake in

Sonoma wine Sonoma County wine refers to the viticulture and winemaking in Sonoma County, California, United States. County names in the United States automatically qualify as legal appellations of origin for wine produced from grapes grown in that county ...

and food. It also has a

grape stomping A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began approximately 8,00 ...

contest. The Harmony Festival, which is in June, is a

new age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...

festival with

psychics A psychic is a person who claims to use powers rooted in parapsychology, such as extrasensory perception (ESP), to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance; or who performs acts that ar ...

, food, and music. Starting in 2013, the Emerald Cup, an "organic

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...

competition", started taking place at the fairgrounds, moving from its original location in Mendocino.

References

External links

* {{coord, 38.43, -122.70, type:landmark_region:US-CA, display=title Tourist attractions in Santa Rosa, California Fairgrounds in California