Central force

Christine Carrillo

An Army air base turned fairgrounds, the site of Indian Pow Wows and

Scottish Festivals, and host to numerous gun and computer shows over

the years, the Orange County Fair and Exposition Center in Costa Mesa

has played a varied role in the city’s 50-year history.

The fairgrounds lured flocks of residents from surrounding cities

and counties into Costa Mesa’s city limits to attend the annual

Orange County Fair that found a permanent home there in 1950.

“I would like to the think the fair is part of the community

development,” said Becky Bailey-Findley, general manager and chief

executive for the center. “I think when you talk about the people who

work at the fair and kind of embody the spirit of the fair, many of

them are residents, but even if some of us don’t live here, we still

see it as a second home, and it’s because of the years of interaction

with the community.”

It still acts as bartering central on the weekends, giving

shoppers across Southern California, and sometimes beyond, an outdoor

marketplace for nearly anything under the sun.

“I think we’ve long been known as a great place for the family to

spend the day. ... We’re almost like an outdoor mall with a heavy

emphasis on fun,” said Jeff Teller, president of the Orange County

Marketplace, which began in 1969. “We’ve had a great relationship

with the city for a number of years. ... We’re kind of an

institution.”

While the fairgrounds has managed to maintain a positive fiscal

effect on the city with such multimillion dollar events as the fair

and the marketplace, it has also created its share of controversy.

At one time, the fairgrounds sparked huge debate over the concert

noise that penetrated through residential neighborhoods in the

amphitheater’s vicinity. That controversy, which resulted in the

closure of the Pacific Amphitheater in 1995, may rear its head once

again when the amphitheater reopens this summer during the fair.

For the most part, whether positive or negative, the fairgrounds

have had quite an effect on the city, as a whole.

“The old-fashioned country fair and venues, livestock shows and

rodeos have really been a very big part of Costa Mesa, keeping its

hometown feel as opposed to a metropolitan feel,” said Ed Fawcett,

president of the Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce. “Costa Mesa revolves

around the fair more than the fair revolves around it. It has been

very instrumental in the ... [formation] of the city. I think the

fairgrounds will be here for a long time to come.”