Here's how far 10 bucks will get you at the Ventura County Fair

Mar 28, 2024

Sun hat: check. Water bottle: full. Ten dollar bill: snug in my wallet.

I arrived at the Pacific View Mall in Ventura on Thursday afternoon with the bare minimum of fair-going essentials, hoping to answer a question of great public interest.

How much fun can you have at the Ventura County Fair on a budget?

I capped my budget for admission, food and entertainment at $10, hoping to fill my day with deals, experiences and freebies.

My journey started, by necessity, at the mall, one of seven places fair-goers can skip the fairgrounds' $20 parking fee and catch a free shuttle This one, an off-duty yellow school bus, took somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes to make it to the drop-off zone within walking distance of the fair gates.

That was where the longest part of my day began. The entry line was backed up far enough to wind into the parking lot, then back toward the casino at the corner of the grounds. It took me just over an hour to make it through. A security guard at the back of the line said it had been even longer before I joined.

Fair spokesperson Megan Hook responded to texted questions by touting the "amazing community response" to Food Share Day, a Thursday-only food donation ticket deal the fair arranged with local food bank Food Share. The fair has five more special admission days planned, including Friday.

The fair added an additional entry line on Friday, she said, for individuals who purchased tickets online or ahead of time in an attempt to decrease wait times.

I was able to make it through the gates without dropping a dollar thanks to the program by Food Share, the nonprofit regional food bank. I culled three cans of tuna and two cans of corn from my pantry at home and traded them in for a buy-one-get-one-free fair admission ticket on my way through the line.

Ana Guerrero, a mother of three from Oxnard, helped me solve the "buy-one" half of the equation. Her 3-year-old daughter had free admission, so Guerrero bought two $15 tickets for herself and one teenage son, then added her own BOGO ticket along with my own to cover the rest of our impromptu crew.

We were in, my $10 bill still untouched.

I did what I could to return the favor by sharing some ride recommendations from my fair excursions last year, then peeled off for the vendor booths, where I hoped to track down some free samples.

Ghost Scream Hot Sauce, a San Clemente-based brand, drew me in first with a rainbow range of hot sauces, chili pastes and barbecue sauces.

Zack Mallgrave, a wry salesman with a curled mustache, said he'd been making the county fair circuit all summer. The experience showed.

"This jam is so good they don't play it on the radio," he cracked as I tested out the brand's chili garlic jam.

Not everything was as free as advertised. A salesman hawking shoe cleaning supplies offered to clean one of my ragged white Adidas sneakers for free, but when pressed, said the cost to finish the job by cleaning the second shoe would be $20.

I spun a wheel full of free prizes at T-Mobile's booth and won a device that would purportedly monitor my car's health and report back to my mechanic, but left in a hurry when I learned the free device would come with a $10 monthly fee.

There are, however, plenty of free activities at the fair.

Outside, I saw an acrobat cling to a spinning hoop 20 feet above the ground and dodged a juggling unicyclist as he weaved through the crowd. I cheered for the All-Alaskan Racing Pigs as they tore around their tiny track. I locked eyes with a camel.

Bee enthusiast Eduardo Flores, of Ventura Bee Rescue, gave a fascinating presentation on the world of bees in the Agriculture Building. I sadly missed the fair's annual corn shucking contest, which started while I was still in line outside.

In the Gem and Mineral Building, I watched a man extract fossilized shells from a hunk of natural chalk and gawked at a box full of luminescing rocks. Kate Faulkner, of the Ventura County Genealogical Society, helped me browse my family's online historical records in the Family History Booth. We found an old high school yearbook photo of my mother.

The one major obstacle for budget-conscious fair-goers is food. Where my colleague Tom Kisken dined on funnel cake and piña coladas during his Bourdainian quest for the fair's best bite, my measly $10 threatened to leave me hungry.

I caught the tail end of a cooking demonstration in the Home Arts but building, but missed out on the food samples. I scrounged two almonds from a booth selling candied nuts.

I had more luck at the fair's Bounty of the County competition, which pitted local producers in a beer-and-food pairing contest, judged by fair guests. The competition will be back Aug. 10, this time featuring wine and desserts.

A sample of Ventura-based Bellringer Brewing Company's house-made chili, paired with a tiny cup of amber ale, hit the spot, as did a pilsner from Ventura Coast Brewing Company, paired with fresh strawberries from Prancer's Farm in Santa Paula.

Still, it wasn't enough food to fill, so I ventured down Main Street in search of something filling, priced in the single digits. I passed up a quartet of chicken strips ($8), a small pizza-on-a-stick ($7.50) and a side of coleslaw ($4) before landing on a bean cup from Palapa Taco, stacked with tortilla chips and a sprinkle of pre-shredded cheese ($5). For an added dose of protein, I paid an extra $4 to add a piece of fried fish.

The bean cup won't win any culinary awards (I missed my earlier hot sauce flight) and my extra $4 probably would have been better spent on coleslaw, but the pinto beans were just filling enough.

The sun was headed for the ocean, so I headed for the grandstand arena, where Patti LaBelle's band was just getting rolling in a performance free to all fair attendees.

I quickly forgot about the pinto beans as the 79-year-old performer rocked hits like "Somebody Loves You, Baby" and lilted through a cover of Chris Stapleton's "Tennessee Whiskey."

On my way to the fair exit, I passed a booth run by water treatment company Culligan Ventura.

"Free water," spouted salesman Devon Lorenzini. "The only free thing at the fair."

I filled my empty bottle to the brim. It was delicious.

Isaiah Murtaugh covers education for the Ventura County Star in partnership with Report for America. Reach him at [email protected] or 805-437-0236 and follow him on Twitter @isaiahmurtaugh and @vcsschools. You can support this work with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America.