Monday, April 27, 2020 (9:52 am)

The OC Fair & Event Center Board of Directors voted unanimously today to cancel the 2020 OC Fair, one of the most anticipated and enduring summer celebrations in Southern California for 130 years. The Board considered ongoing guidance and updated information from State and County health care and government officials about the status of the coronavirus pandemic and the improbability that mass gatherings like the OC Fair could safely and responsibly take place this summer.

In addition to the regularly scheduled monthly meeting, the Board called a second April meeting specifically to review all options and discuss whether or not to move forward with the 2020 OC Fair. The action comes amid unprecedented community stay-at-home and social distancing orders and will protect guests, vendors and staff during the COVID-19 crisis.

“The decision to cancel the 2020 OC Fair was not taken lightly by the Board. As Governor-appointed representatives the Board has a responsibility to provide a safe experience to the community-at-large, the hundreds of people who depend on county fairs for their livelihood, fairgoers and OC Fair staff,” said Board Chair Sandra Cervantes. “While many of our guests have expressed extreme disappointment over the idea of the 2020 Fair being canceled, we strongly believe it is the right thing to do in this current situation. However, we will keep the spirit of the OC Fair alive with virtual fair concepts such as contests, competitions, entertainment and concessions to bring the fair experience to guests through ocfair.com and social media.”

The 23-day OC Fair welcomes more than 1.3 million fairgoers each year and has an estimated economic impact of $350 million annually. The Fair was canceled 1942-1947 during wartime, but otherwise has been a summer staple since 1890. Information on refunds for concert tickets and Super Passes that have already been purchased can be found at ocfair.com/refunds.

“We love the OC Fair as much as our guests do. And, while it’s disappointing that the Fair can’t take place this year, we fully support the Board’s decision,” said Michele Richards, OC Fair & Event Center CEO. “But please know OC Fair & Event Center will still be here to serve the community as we plan for the next OC Fair and the eventual return of our wonderful events.”

Thursday, March 12, 2020 (7:16 pm)

(Updated June 11, 202o) 

Out of an abundance of caution and to help stem the spread of coronavirus, OC Fair & Event Center announces a full public closure of the facilities, including Heroes Hall Veterans Museum, Centennial Farm, Equestrian Center and the administration building lobby until further notice.

OC Fair & Event center will continue to follow public health directives.

The following events previously scheduled to take place at OC Fair & Event Center have been impacted: 

• Orange County Market Place – weekends, canceled until further notice
• Farmers Market – Thursdays, canceled until June 18
• OC Wine Fest – June 13-14, canceled
• BrideWorld – June 14, canceled
• OC Market Place Taco Fest – June 20, canceled
• Costa Mesa Speedway – June 20, canceled
• FamFest – June 20-21, canceled
• Pacific Symphony – July 4 & Aug. 21, canceled
• 2020 OC Fair – July 17-Aug. 16, canceled
• SoCal World Guitar Show – Aug. 22-23, canceled
• Irish Festival – Sept. 5-6, canceled

The following is a list of events originally scheduled for earlier this year that have been rescheduled for a later date: 

• AAOC Trade Show and Conference – March 26, postponed to Sept. 10
• Mom Made Market – March 28-29, postponed to Oct. 10-11
• Fight Club – April 9 & June 11, postponed until Oct. 15 & Nov. 12
• OC Marathon – May 1-3, postponed to Nov. 6-8
• OC Night Market – May 8-10 & May 15-17, postponed to Oct. 23-25 & Oct. 30-Nov. 1 

For a complete list of upcoming scheduled events, please visit ocfair.com/events. 

Monday, October 21, 2019 (1:11 pm)

When: Saturday, Nov. 9, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Where: OC Fair & Event Center – Heroes Hall
How much: Free for all ages

On Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019, OC Fair & Event Center and Orange County Employees Association will host a free community celebration in honor of Veterans Day. The event will include free hot dogs for all attendees, family-friendly activities, entertainment and a Veterans Resource Fair. Opening ceremonies for the event will include a city address by Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley.

Emmy-Award winning newscaster Ed Arnold will help emcee a dedication and unveiling of the A-4M Skyhawk Aircraft at Heroes Hall, which was relocated last month from the Civic Center in Santa Ana.  The event will also feature a plaque dedication for Thomas P. Clark, Jr. in the Heroes Hall Walk of Honor, as well as a cake cutting ceremony with the United States Marines in honor of the 244th U.S. Marine Corps birthday.

While the event and parking is free, guests are encouraged to bring donations for the food drive for veterans. All donations will go to Disabled American Veterans, a group that distributes donations to various organizations that help homeless veterans. Please bring non-perishable food items such as canned and instant soups, pastas, canned fruits and vegetables, baby food, or gift cards to purchase food. Also accepted: toiletries such as toothpaste, soap, shampoo and toilet paper, as well as baby items like diapers, bottles and clothing.

During the event, Heroes Hall will be open to guests, featuring the newest exhibit, Fighting on the Home Front: Propaganda Posters of World War II. The veterans museum is open year-round and also features the exhibit The SAAAB Story, which chronicles the history of the Santa Ana Army Airbase.

The celebration will continue until 4 p.m. with free admission to the OC Market Place, located near Heroes Hall.

Friday, September 27, 2019 (3:25 pm)

A Vietnam-era A-4M Skyhawk aircraft has been relocated from the Santa Ana Civic Center to Heroes Hall. The plane has been a part of Civic Center Plaza for more than a decade, but has to be moved due to construction plans.

The aircraft was transported to OC Fair & Event Center overnight and was lifted onto its new display pedestal, which is surrounded by hardscape and seating areas, this morning.

Heroes Hall will host a Salute to Veterans event on Nov. 9, at which time the Skyhawk will be officially unveiled. 

The aircraft is on loan from the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Fla.

A-4M Skyhawk aircraft makes its move to Heroes Hall

A-4M Skyhawk aircraft makes its move to Heroes Hall

A-4M Skyhawk aircraft makes its move to Heroes Hall

A-4M Skyhawk aircraft makes its move to Heroes Hall

A-4M Skyhawk aircraft makes its move to Heroes Hall

A-4M Skyhawk aircraft makes its move to Heroes Hall

A-4M Skyhawk aircraft makes its move to Heroes Hall

A-4M Skyhawk aircraft makes its move to Heroes Hall

A-4M Skyhawk aircraft makes its move to Heroes Hall

A-4M Skyhawk aircraft makes its move to Heroes Hall

A-4M Skyhawk aircraft makes its move to Heroes Hall

A-4M Skyhawk aircraft makes its move to Heroes Hall

A-4M Skyhawk aircraft makes its move to Heroes Hall

A-4M Skyhawk aircraft makes its move to Heroes Hall

A-4M Skyhawk aircraft makes its move to Heroes Hall

A-4M Skyhawk aircraft makes its move to Heroes Hall

A-4M Skyhawk aircraft makes its move to Heroes Hall

SKYHAWK FACTS

Plane specifications:

• Wing Span: 27’ 5”
• Length: 41’ 4”
• Height: 15’
• Max speed: 690 MPH
• Range: 1,856 nautical miles

History and details:

• The A-4 Skyhawk is an attack aircraft developed for the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps in the early 1950s to provide close air support for Marines while flying from expeditionary airfields and aircraft carriers.
• Skyhawk planes first flew in 1954 and entered service with the Marine Corps at MCAS El Toro in September 1956. The aircraft played a major role during the Cold War and the Vietnam War.
• The A-4M Skyhawk that will be on display at Heroes Hall first flew in April 1970. The M model was the last production series of the Skyhawk.
• The aircraft was designed by legendary engineer Ed Heinemann and produced by Douglas Aircraft Company and later by McDonnel Douglas.
• The first 500 produced cost an average of $860,000 each, less than the Navy’s $1 million maximum.
• A total of 2,960 were built in El Segundo and Long Beach, California, either as single-seat attack aircraft or as dual-seated advanced trainers that were also used in forward air control missions.
• The A-4 Skyhawk has wings so compact that they did not need to be folded for carrier stowage.
• The aircraft was capable of carrying a variety of missiles, bombs and other munitions. Its bomb load capacity was equivalent to that of a World War II-era B-17 bomber and it was able to deliver nuclear weapons using a low-altitude bombing system.
• The aircraft received many nicknames including “Scooter,” “Kiddiecar,” “Bantam Bomber,” “Tinker Toy Bomber,” and “Heinemann’s Hot-Rod.”
• Notable naval aviators who flew the Skyhawk include Lt. Commanders Everette Alvarez, Jr., John McCain, and Commander James Stockdale.

Monday, September 16, 2019 (4:00 pm)

The Vietnam-era A-4M Skyhawk aircraft will be relocated from the Santa Ana Civic Center to Heroes Hall late on Sept. 26. The plane has been a part of Civic Center Plaza for more than a decade, but has to be moved due to construction plans.

The aircraft will be transported to OC Fair & Event Center overnight and will be lifted onto its new display pedestal which is surrounded by hardscape and seating areas. The Skyhawk will be officially unveiled at the annual Salute to Veterans event on Nov. 9.

Preparations for the move will begin at 8 p.m. as the plane is detached and removed from its current mounting and loaded for transport. The aircraft will begin its move from the Civic Center at approx. 11:30 p.m. on Sept. 26. Bragg Crane and Rigging will carry the Skyhawk north on Broadway, then down Civic Center Drive to Fairview Road, and on to the fairgrounds at 88 Fair Drive in Costa Mesa.

The California Highway Patrol will escort the plane on the approx. 15-mile journey to its new place of honor at Heroes Hall. The move is expected to be completed by 5:30 a.m. or earlier on Sept. 27.

The aircraft is on loan from the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Fla.

Thursday, August 8, 2019 (2:00 pm)

It’s official! The groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the incoming arrival of the A-4M Skyhawk happened on Thursday, Aug. 8 and featured several OC Fair, state, county, city and veterans leaders.

Former news and sports anchor Ed Arnold served as the program’s emcee.

The aircraft will move from the Santa Ana Civic Center by the end of September, and will be installed and dedicated outside Heroes Hall on Nov. 9.

The plane had been a part of Civic Center Plaza for more than a decade, but has to be moved due to construction plans.

The plane is on loan from the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Fla.

Click here to see more photos from the event.

Thursday, August 1, 2019 (2:30 pm)

OC Fair & Event Center is excited to announce a groundbreaking ceremony for the relocation of a Vietnam-era A-4M Skyhawk aircraft from the Santa Ana Civic Center to Heroes Hall. The plane had been a part of Civic Center Plaza for more than a decade, but has to be moved due to construction plans.

The ceremony will take place at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 8 before the OC Fair opens. Refreshments will be served immediately following the ceremony.

The aircraft is expected to be transported to OCFEC by the end of September and to be installed prior to a Veterans Day dedication ceremony in November.

The plane is on loan from the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Fla.

RSVP to rsvp@ocfair.com

Note: This event will take place before the OC Fair opens. You will receive instructions for parking and entrance upon submitting your RSVP.

Heroes Hall is a free, permanent, year-round museum and education center with exhibitions, performances and educational programs that celebrate the legacy of Orange County veterans and others who have served our nation. The museum is located next to Centennial Farm on the fairgrounds in Costa Mesa and is open to the public year-round Wednesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., and featured in school tours on Mondays and Tuesdays. Parking and admission for Heroes Hall is free except during the OC Fair and select year-round events.

Friday, July 26, 2019 (12:36 pm)

When “Taps” gets played at 6 p.m. nightly at Heroes Hall during the 2019 OC Fair, there’s one man standing there who has an especially direct attachment to the song.

Mitchell Butterfield, who works at Heroes Hall during the Fair, is related to Daniel Butterfield, the Medal of Honor-winning Civil War Army general largely credited with composing the song. 

Daniel Butterfield, along with bugler Oliver Willcox Norton, wrote “Taps” as a new way to establish the military call for the end of the day. It wasn’t until after the Civil War that it became the official end-of-day call.

Nowadays, it’s most associated with being played at military funerals.

Mitchell Butterfield’s fellow workers at Heroes Hall had no idea about the connection.

“When we had the first kid who played ‘Taps,’ I went up and told him, ‘You know, my great great grandfather wrote that song,’ Butterfield said. “And (Heroes Hall Supervisor Carol Singleton) heard that and said, ‘Really?’ And then it just went from there.”

Taps has been played at Heroes Hall for the OC Fair since the military museum opened in 2017.

Mitchell Butterfield, 72, from Orange, is also an Army veteran, while his father was a Marine who was stationed at El Toro, lived in Tustin and later moved to Orange.

While Butterfield is proud of the historical connection — “I feel proud that he had something to do with it. I tell it to anyone who wants to listen” – he’s also reluctant to mention it when he introduces the playing of “Taps” at Heroes Hall.

“When I do the announcement, I don’t mention the family part of it,” he said. “It’s not relevant. It’s about the vets. It’s about the servicemen.”

During a recent night at Heroes Hall, “Taps” was played for the first time with the correct musical instrument: a bugle.

And the bugler playing it? Another OC Fair connection: Richard Grogan, a Centennial Farm volunteer as an oxen teamster.

Monday, March 12, 2018 (10:17 am)

Posted in: Heroes Hall

Friday, October 13, 2017 (6:27 pm)

A striking new photography exhibit, Kimberly Millett’s Operation Iraqi Freedom, debuts this weekend at Heroes Hall, which reopens Saturday, Oct. 14, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The exhibition on the first floor of Heroes Hall will feature images captured by Public Affairs Specialist Kimberly Millett while on assignment with the U.S. Army from 2006 to 2009. The exhibit is the Newport Beach resident’s first. As a graduate of UC San Diego, Millett was deployed twice to Iraq as a journalist.

Millett has previously worked in the Visual and Home Arts galleries at the OC Fair, and entered a collection of military coins in the Collections gallery. Her grandfather, William Boylhart, served at the Santa Ana Arm Air Base during WWII, and her brother, Ryan Millett, loaned Heroes Hall the military vehicles used at its opening. So it’s no surprise that she was attracted to the military.

“I had always thought of joining the military,” Millett said. “I read about basic training and boot camp and kind of liked the idea of the lifestyle before I even knew what it really was.”

During Millet’s first deployment she provided documentation – photographs and commentary – on the 89th MP Brigade stationed at Camp Victory, Iraq, from August 2006 to November 2007.

“It didn’t feel real,” Millett said of her first tour. “But if you do anything long enough, it becomes natural.”

During her second deployment to Iraq, from August 2008 to September 2009, she was assigned to document the activities of General Raymond T. Odierno and General David Petraeus as they sought to stabilize the country so the roots of democracy could take hold.

“We toured prisons, hospitals, an amusement park, voting facilities, police stations, markets and schools,” Millett said. “One trip would take us to a modern, thriving city, and on another day we would walk through a place that looked straight out of biblical times. I built a snowman in front of the president’s place. We went to Turkey for a lunch meeting. There were lavish palaces and towns with rivers of raw sewage. Every trip was an adventure in its own way.”

The photography exhibit features aluminum prints as well as several mementos from Millett’s tours, including Salaam the Sock Monkey, who became part of Millett’s journey and even earned a Combat Action Badge and Iraq Service Medal. The photos chosen depict outings, memorials, generals and leaders.

“My favorite part of working for the general was the battlefield circulations,” Millett said. “Once a week or so we would go to a new town and walk through the local marketplace. This gave the general (Odierno) a chance to talk informally to both businessmen and commanders about concerns. It was nice to see the country without a thick armored door between you and the people.”

Also coming up at Heroes Hall

Voices – Veterans Storytelling Project will feature local veterans sharing their stories of bravery. The evening is a culmination of a six week workshop in which veterans gathered at Heroes Hall to learn the best way to piece their stories together. Join us in supporting our local veterans at this free event on Friday, Oct. 20, at 6:30 p.m.

Heroes Hall is an exhibition hall honoring Orange County’s veterans. It opened in February 2017 and also features “The SAAAB Story” exhibit, which celebrates the history of the flight training center, as well as The Medal of Honor Plaza and the Orange County Walk of Honor, both tributes to veterans from Orange County who received high honors from the United States government. For more information about Heroes Hall, visit ocfair.com/heroeshall.