I love the fair. Love, love, love the fair. But some people absolutely hate the fair with its crowds, smelly barn animals, as-seen on-tv  hard to resist products, fried food of all kinds, creepy carnies, and  those rides that who knows the last time they were inspected. Those are the same reasons I love the fair, that and my well-known obsession of large-scale events as well as my secret, dark obsession with the carnival atmosphere stemming from Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes.

This year I was invited to attend the San Diego County Fair’s  media party where they offer San Diego’s media outlets a first hand, free look into the food and fun of the fair (oh yeah, free booze is also prevalent). I should really emphasize the FOOD since the theme of this year’s fair is Taste the Fun.

The usual suspects will be there including Chicken Charlie’s , Gingerbread Shop, Hot Dog on a Stick, Bloomin’ Onions, Texas Tater Twisters and more. I personally can never resist the mini-donuts and indian fry bread. Each year the food vendors concoct new items to add to their growing list of fried or sugar-dipped foods. Here is the list of the newest foods offered at this year’s fair.

For the last 5 or six years I have not missed going to see the Demolition Derby in action. “”Wh-wh-what?!” you might say. Every year the demolition derby draws crowds into the Del Mar arena, normally where the prancing pony, horse shows happen. This year the rumble happens on July 4-5 and a bonus one on June 19 at 4 p.m. as a part of the Fire Expo. Firefighters doing demolition derby = hot!!!

Oh yeah, and new to this year’s fair is a three-day banked track roller derby tournament, Battle on the Bank III. Think it can’t get better than that, wrong! Same time, same place (in the Del Mar arena), the San Diego International Beer Festival is happening. Good beer and derby. Three days of heaven. Sadly, I’m not skating due to my busy schedule in May causing me not to make my attendance. But San Diego Derby Dolls will be hosting and representing with two teams: Banked Track All-Stars and Hard Corps. Other teams include LA Derby Dolls, Texas Roller Derby, Team Legit (best flat track skaters in the country), Arizona Derby Dames and more! Um, and it is free with fair admission. If you can’t be there in person, watch online at derbydolls.tv or on DNN. I will most likely be hanging out in one of the chatrooms for most of the tournament.

There is a ton more stuff at the fair than I can really list in this blog post, including games, rides, music, stuff you can buy, stuff people made, stuff people collect and animals that get judged. So I do suggest you check out their website for schedules and exhibitions.

Also, don’t forget to pick up your fair tickets ahead of time (they are definitely cheaper that way). I got my season pass and you can too for $22 for 22 days of the fair until June 10 at Albertsons. So much is happening you really don’t want to miss out.