The La County Fair will open May 7, 2026, at 11 a.m. and run through May 31, a 17-day schedule that puts opening day on a Thursday and brings back a full day at the fairgrounds. The fair will operate four days a week, Thursday through Sunday, plus Memorial Day, with gates open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day it runs.
Renee Hernandez said the change gives the fair “a day longer” and “six hours earlier” on opening day. “Instead of starting at 5 p.m. on opening day, we’re starting at 11 a.m.,” she said, adding that the schedule “gave us the opportunity to go back to opening on a Thursday and having a 17-day fair once again.”
The move marks a shift from the past three years, when the fair ran 16 days. Beginning in 2023, it had held a private preopening reception for stakeholders on Friday afternoon before opening the gates at 5 p.m. In 2023, the fair moved its opening to Friday instead of Thursday to give the carnival company an extra day. This year, Cinco de Mayo falls on Tuesday, and the fair did not stretch its schedule to include it.
Lucas Rivera, a fair consultant, called the extra day a welcome change. “It’s great to have another day — and another full day,” he said, adding, “Jump right into fun. ‘Let’s go have some fried turkey legs.’”
The schedule also gives Ray Cammack Shows, the carnival company for the fair, a little more breathing room after the fair in Tucson ended on April 26. The timing matters because the fair’s calendar has shifted repeatedly over the years. In the 2000s, it ran Wednesday through Sunday for 18 days. During the 2010s, it expanded to 24 days to encompass five weekends, including Labor Day. After the COVID-19 pandemic, it returned in 2022 with a four-days-a-week, 17-day run that opened on Thursday, May 5, to coincide with Cinco de Mayo.
That history makes the 2026 schedule more than a minor calendar tweak. It restores a Thursday opening, keeps the fair to 17 days, and starts the day-long run hours earlier than in recent years. For fairgoers, the answer is straightforward: the La County Fair is not just adding a day, it is reopening in the way officials say best fits the midway, the calendar and the crowd.
