MADERA - Remember the days of the local community fair, where folks competed to be recognized for the best homemade jelly or the biggest home-grown pumpkin? Where you could watch the 4H and FFA kids collect ribbons for the animals and projects they had been working on all year. You could shop all the vendor booths for items you can only find at the fair, and there were always fun carnival rides and midway games to play. Not to mention treating yourself to all the corndogs and cotton candy you could eat. Well, the good news is that it is that time again!
The Madera District Fair kicks off its four-day run on September 7 with local service clubs and vendors selling all your favorite fair foods. How long has it been since you have had a Jumbo Corndog or Frozen Banana? In addition, all your favorite fair acts will be roaming the grounds, waiting to entertain you with magicians, ventriloquists, jugglers, music, and more. Let’s not forget about characters walking around the fair ready to entertain your family. While there will not be a fireworks show, there will be a nightly drone light show over the fairgrounds that will be like nothing you have ever seen before in the valley. The Midway of Fun will be back with all your favorite carnival rides and games, and let us not forget the hours of entertainment on all of the fair’s stages. This year the gate admissions during the fair will be $15 for adults over 13 years of age and $10 for seniors; Kids 12 and under enter for FREE all four days of the fair courtesy of Valley Children’s Healthcare when accompanied by an adult.
Here is your first ‘Fair Pro Tip’ - for a limited time, the Madera Fair offers significant savings for families purchasing their tickets and wristbands in advance. Until the day before the start of the fair, advance gate admission tickets and carnival wristbands will be on sale at the Madera Fair’s office and online on the fair’s website (www.MaderaFair.com) at reduced prices. General admission gate tickets will be sold for $10, while advance carnival wristband coupons are available for $35. For a family of four, this is a potential savings of over $40 on your evening’s entertainment at the fair. Your advance tickets are also good for any day of the fair. So, if you purchased them expecting to go on Friday night but could not make it until Saturday, your tickets will still be good.
Here is another ‘Fair Pro Tip’ for you daredevils that a one-day carnival pass is not enough, the Madera Fair offers the Golden Passport to Midway of Fun for the first time. It is a four-day pass for unlimited rides for the run of the fair. The pass runs $100 each but does not include the gate admission (sold separately). The Golden Passport is available on the fair's website and at the fair's office, where you will find more information.
The fair also offers special days to save families even more money, like Valley Children’s Healthcare Day on Thursday, September 7th, where everyone, despite their age, gets into the fair for the kid’s price (FREE). That is right, everyone is admitted for FREE for opening night only. That savings alone is enough to buy everyone in the family a Jumbo Corndog. In addition, (another ‘Fair Pro Tip’) on both Saturday and Sunday, the Early Bird Special from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm offers buy one get one free Carnival Wristbands (these savings cannot be combined with other offers, such as advance purchase wristbands).
The Madera Fair kicks off on Thursday, September 7th, and runs until Sunday, September 10th. Hours of free entertainment are scheduled for both the Headliners and the 20/30 Stage, plus all the fair acts playing multiple times a night throughout the grounds. So do not miss it! While they are still available, grab your savings on advance tickets, carnival coupons, and the Golden Passport. Be a community fair pro and save money while enjoying the best of what the Madera Fair offers. There will be a corndog waiting with your name on it.
