Sonoma County Fair

The Sonoma County Fair fills the county fairgrounds in Santa Rosa each summer with the full county-fair repertoire: livestock shows and farm animals, a carnival of rides, live music, rodeo nights at the Chris Beck Arena and a themed flower show that turns an exhibit hall into a garden.

Around the main attractions run the contests that give the fair its character, from the Scarecrow Festival, where entries are built on the spot, to an Elvis impersonation contest, along with the competitive exhibits that local growers and makers enter each year.

This is where Sonoma County shows its farm side. Behind the wine-country postcard sits a county of ranchers, dairies and growers, and the fair is the one time a year it all comes to town at once. Walk the barns, then the flower show, then the midway, and you will have seen more of the county's working life than a week of tastings could show you.

Arrive in the afternoon, take the exhibits at an easy pace, and stay into the evening for the arena and the stages, when the fairgrounds are at their liveliest.