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The Orange County Fair is back on Friday for its 23-day run in Costa Mesa.
What is there to do? The fair features rides, games, wacky food and thrilling shows, like the demolition derbies and live music.
Read on … for the lowdown on this year’s fair.
The 2026 Orange County Fair kicks off Friday and is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people to Costa Mesa. To help you best plan for the summer tradition, here’s everything you need to know about the 23-day fest.
Gates at the OC Event Center at 88 Fair Dr. open on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays will have extended hours from 11 a.m. to midnight.
The fair ends Aug. 16.
Whether you're a thrill seeker, a foodie, or just there for the vibes, the fair should have something for everyone.
Dozens of carnival rides will include the return of Joker 360, which swings riders into the air while also spinning and flipping. You can also see the Dragon Knights Stilt Show, performers who spring into the air on stilts.
The Action Sports Arena will also feature motorists zipping around inside the Globe of Death and the demolition derby series will return. Tickets to the various shows can be found here.
You can also catch live music at The Hangar or the Pacific Amphitheater throughout the fair’s run. Concert tickets include same-day access to the fair.
El Pachuco Zoot Suit Fashion Show and Lowrider exhibit is a new addition to the fair that will pay homage to the Chicano community’s history, influence and style.
Fair food is a given. For a chance to try a little bit of everything, fairgoers can try the Taste of the Fair promotion, which offers a variety of delights for just $5 at participating booths.
Pre-sale tickets are discounted until Thursday, July 16.
Here’s how much regular tickets cost:
Other admission options include the Every Day Passport. For $60, visitors can enter the fairgrounds every day, including sold-out dates. There are no blackout dates or restrictions.
There are many ways to get to the fair, but public transportation and rideshare are encouraged.
Parking is $15 for cars and motorcycles, and $30 for limos and buses.
Buses will transport fairgoers to and from one of six locations directly to the OC Fair between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Saturdays and 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 p.m. on Sundays. Rides are $2 each way. Your OC Fair tickets must be purchased in advance to ride.
Kids ages 5 through 11 who read three books can qualify for two free rides at the fair’s Kidland. Fill out this form to receive a QR code.
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A new guide from a group of local scientists helps Angelenos affected by the 2025 L.A. fires navigate questions about soil testing and clean up.
Why it matters: When the Eaton and Palisades fires burned down houses and garages, items including paint, kitchen appliances and car batteries released dangerous substances into the environment. Exposure to these substances can increase the risk of respiratory, neurological and reproductive problems, as well as certain cancers.
How to get your soil tested: If you suspect that your soil may be contaminated, the guide suggests two main options for getting it tested. One option is to hire specialists to come to your house to collect and test samples. The other option is collect them yourself and submit them for testing.
Read on … to learn who might need soil testing, the steps involved and how soil can be cleaned up.
A new guide from a group of local scientists helps Angelenos affected by the 2025 L.A. fires navigate questions about soil testing and clean up.
The guidelines are based on soil tests conducted by USC CLEAN and Community Action Project Los Angeles on more than 6,000 lots in and around burn zones in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena.
Sujeet Rao, the health and well-being practice director at Public Exchange at USC, who contributed to the guide, said it's a response to questions that he and other contributors knew residents had.
“We all came together … to help fire affected families understand and navigate questions they may have about environmental contamination related to the fires,” Rao said.
The guide includes information about soil contamination, testing, cleanup methods and ways to reduce your exposure risk.
When the Eaton and Palisades fires burned down houses and garages, items including paint, kitchen appliances and car batteries released dangerous substances into the environment.
Exposure to these substances can increase the risk of respiratory, neurological and reproductive problems, as well as certain cancers.
Lead was the most common concern, according to the scientists’ testing.
Rao said that’s worrying because lead is a neurotoxin.
“What that means is that [for] especially young children whose brains are still developing or women who are pregnant, lead can affect the development of the brain,” Rao said.
While you’re waiting for testing results or remediation to be completed, you can minimize your exposure to many soil contaminants.
Rao said it’s hard to say whether any specific property needs soil testing or cleanup, but gave some general guidelines.
If your house burned, definitely.
If you saw ash in the air, on the ground or otherwise near your house during the fires, get your soil tested.
If not, testing is likely unnecessary.
Other things to consider are the age of the houses that burned and their proximity to your property.
“We do know that if you’re in a neighborhood that has a lot of old housing, it is more likely that there is lead that could have been mobilized,” Rao said. “The inverse of that is, in the Palisades, we generally see much lower levels of lead contamination because the housing there tends to be so much newer.”
The guide suggests two main options for going about testing.
One option is to hire specialists to come to your house to collect and test samples.
The other option is collect samples yourself and submit them to a testing program, such as USC CLEAN.
In the testing results, look for contaminant levels that exceed the residential limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency or the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.
Both account for how the area is used, including whether children are playing outside or people are gardening.
If your soil test results are above the EPA or DTSC limits, the guide offers four main methods to clean it up.
Some soil remediation can be paid for through insurance. Costs will depend on the size of your yard and which contaminants are present. The guide estimates that the least costly options are capping and immobilization, which can run around $10,000.
The full soil remediation guide is on the Consortium website.
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President Donald Trump said Thursday that he is once more trying to limit the number of people who are born in the country who can become American citizens, in a sign that even after his first attempt at limiting birthright citizenship was rejected by the Supreme Court, he’s ready to try again.
Restricting automatic citizenship: The written executive order appeared to focus on restricting automatic citizenship to specific categories of people, including children born to adults with connections to foreign embassies or organizations as well as anyone considered an “alien enemy” of the United States. It also aimed to restrict birthright citizenship to anyone whose parents “engaged in fraudulent activity to obtain citizenship.”
Birth tourism: A second order seeks to curb what Trump called “birth tourism” by increasing restrictions on visitors to the U.S. who want to obtain visas to give birth while in the country. Trump said he thought his latest actions would be constitutional.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he is once more trying to limit the number of people who are born in the country who can become American citizens, in a sign that even after his first attempt at limiting birthright citizenship was rejected by the Supreme Court, he’s ready to try again.
The president said he was signing two executive actions on immigration, including one limiting the number of people eligible for U.S. citizenship after being born in the United States.
The written executive order released later Thursday was narrower in scope than the previous one shot down by the Supreme Court and appeared to focus on restricting automatic citizenship to specific categories of people, including children born to adults with connections to foreign embassies or organizations, as well as anyone considered an “alien enemy” of the United States.
It also aimed to restrict birthright citizenship to anyone whose parents “engaged in fraudulent activity to obtain citizenship.”
A second order seeks to curb what Trump called “birth tourism” by increasing restrictions on visitors to the U.S. who want to obtain visas to give birth while in the country.
Trump said he thought his latest actions would be constitutional.
“I thought we were going to win it at the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, we had a bad decision, very unfair decision. Our country suffers because of it and we’re ending it a different way,” Trump said.
In June, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s previous efforts to declare that children born to people in the U.S. illegally or temporarily aren’t American citizens, and upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship.
On Trump’s first day in office of his second term, he signed an executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship, which allows anyone born in the United States to automatically become an American citizen.
Trump’s administration was immediately sued by opponents who said the executive order went against the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, which makes anyone born in the country a citizen, with very limited exceptions.
The executive order was blocked by several lower courts and never took effect.
In June, the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s order by a 6-3 vote. But the vote was too close for many immigration advocates and legal observers who felt the legal question of birthright citizenship was a long-settled issue.
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ALTO chef-owners Esteban Klenzi and Juana Castellanos have launched a new bar and lounge, bringing Argentine vermouth culture and everyday Rioplatense dishes to the Studio City restaurant.
Why it matters: ALTO built its name on special-occasion asado, but the new bar menu — choripán, beef tongue, vermouth service — gives regulars a reason to come back during the week for a casual bite, not just for a milestone dinner.
Read on … for what to order, what to drink, and how the two chefs are turning ALTO into a neighborhood spot …
Just past the doorway at ALTO, off busy Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, the bar opens up under exposed post-and-beam ceilings, tanned cowhides hanging along the walls like abstract art.
Grab a seat at one of the small tables and settle in for the open-fire South American restaurant's new, more casual bar concept, where street food takes center stage from executive Chef Esteban Klenzi and co-founder Juana Castellanos.
In its first year, ALTO has already landed a spot in the Michelin Guide California.
Both chefs came up through fine dining — including time in Spain's Basque Country — and watched their peers wear rigid, high-pressure kitchen culture as a badge of honor.
But Castellanos and Klenzi wanted something different.
For Klenzi, cooking is as much about feeling as it is about food — an idea his new bar menu extends directly.
"It's like cooking at home for my friends or my family," he said.
Their connection runs deeper than the kitchen, though. Both chefs grew up around the Río de la Plata, the shared basin uniting Argentina and Uruguay into a single Rioplatense identity — once part of the same Spanish colonial territory before an 1828 treaty, brokered under British pressure, split them apart. Not unlike the Basque Country straddling Spain and France: one culture, divided by a border neither side chose.
The bar leans into what Klenzi calls the rotisserías tradition — the everyday, prepared-food spots common across Argentina. That shows up in the Tongue & Trout Roe Toast ($17): sous-vide beef tongue over brioche, finished with a celery-carrot vinaigrette and a crown of trout roe. It's a savory, briny bite, perfect for sharing to start the meal.
The Real Deal ($18) — ALTO's take on the classic choripán sandwich — pulls from the dinner menu, too: short rib and smoked pork, the same cuts used in the Asado Banderita and Pork Txuleta.
When the pair first sat down to design the menu, Klenzi found himself facing a deceptively simple question: "Should we make a burger? Or shall we make a choripán?"
They chose the choripán, prizing the way beef and pork together deliver, in his words, "the best flavor you can get from both of them." Lard from the pork chop trim adds richness; the short rib's fat keeps the sausage moist, with smokiness carried over from that same applewood-smoked chop.
For something heartier, there's the Banderita & Frites ($39): a thinner cut of short rib than its dinner-menu counterpart, seared on both sides.
Alongside it, try the smashed potatoes from Weiser Family Farms, cooked in the charcoal oven with beef tallow. Klenzi refuses to serve french fries — this is his answer instead, crisp outside, rich with tallow underneath.
Ever since I wrote about Spanish vermouth last month, I've been a magnet for the stuff — not complaining, especially during these warmer months. ALTO had me covered, though the serving style looked nothing like what I'm used to.
Unlike the Spanish and Italian style of an orange slice and olive, Argentine vermouth is served over ice with soda water — lighter, easier to drink.
On the table: a trio from the Vermucito Experience — Las Flores blanco from Uruguay, and La Fuerza's rojo and sideral from Argentina, Malbec-based pours ranging from $12 to $22.
"When you pour it in the glass, it's almost red. It looks almost like a wine," Klenzi said of La Fuerza's rojo, made with Malbec. "You can really feel the pure essence of the Malbec wine."
Location: 12969 Ventura Blvd., Studio City
Hours: Tuesday–Friday 5:30–9:30 p.m., Saturday 5–9:30 p.m., Sunday 5–9 p.m. Closed Monday.
ALTO celebrates its first anniversary Aug. 13 and 14 with an à la carte collaboration dinner featuring chefs Clara Corso and Lucas Canga. Reservations are available via ALTO's Instagram.
The regular dinner menu is a great choice for a special night out. But the bar is for every other night — the "almost every day" Klenzi imagined when he decided a choripán, not a burger, was the answer.
"If we see your face every day, we're gonna take care of you every day," Klenzi said.
Look: I like dogs. I just don't like when they're inside restaurants or other places where food is served. Lately, I've seen a lot of people casually bringing their pups into restaurants, and it's been grossing me out.
But: That's not just my opinion. L.A. County's public health policy forbids dogs inside restaurants, although the rules don't seem to be stopping anyone.
So: I shared my thoughts on a recent episode of AirTalk, which airs on your radio dial at LAist 89.3. We also heard from listeners about what they thought about bringing dogs in restaurants.
Listen: To the AirTalk episode above to hear what people had to say. Email me at nperez@laist.com if you get caught up and want to fight it out over who is right.
