The Antelope Valley Times

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2022 AV Fair & Alfalfa Festival “What a Ride!” announced

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LANCASTER – The AV Fair & Alfalfa Festival, which traditional takes place in mid-August, will be moving to the fall this year, organizers announced Friday.

“What A Ride!” is the theme for this year’s event, happening from Sept. 23 to Oct. 2 at the AV Fair and Event Center, located at 2551 W Avenue H in Lancaster.

“Being forced to cancel the annual Fair for the past two years created a slew of challenges, but it also created a time to reflect, a season of change, and a chance to create new opportunities,” said AV Fair & Event Center Board of Directors President Drew Mercy. “For example, the recent success of our partnership with the city of Lancaster’s California Poppy Festival clearly underscored that this community and the entire region are eager to have more traditional family-fun events.”

“Moving the Fair to the fall season provides cooler, more conducive weather, and better timing for some of the industry’s best entertainment and vendors,” Mercy continued. “Our management team, staff, and volunteers are pulling out all the stops as we get ready to Fair in the fall.”

Organizers said 2022 Fair plans are well underway, and attendees can expect new Fair experiences as well as mainstay traditions, such as fabulous fair food, thrilling carnival rides, midway games, live music, exhibits, and arena events, including headline concerts,

“What A Ride!” will be an eight day event, with Monday, Sept. 26, and Tuesday, Sept. 27, going dark. Additional Fair details, including ticket sales, concert headliners, arena events, and more will be announced in the coming months at AVFair.com.

The 67th Annual Kiwanis Jr. Livestock Auction will still take place in August — on Thursday, Aug. 25. Details for the auction are being finalized and will be shared at AVFair.com as more information becomes available, according to organizers.

[Information via news release from the AV Fair & Event Center.]

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Filed Under: Home, Lancaster

31 comments for "2022 AV Fair & Alfalfa Festival “What a Ride!” announced"

  1. I cant find the Rural Olympics anywhere on the schedule… Do they still do that and if so what dates? My husband is in the Hall of Fame in AV Fair and we would like to go on the evening of that.

  3. The atmosphere of the AV Fair makes me feel like I’m at a carnival in San Bernardino. No Thanks

  4. I wonder if there is something us as community can do to revoke the idea of removing the livestock from the fair we need to keep it been. America’s original carnival…

    • If you want to make your voice heard, don’t go to the fair and waste your money. The only thing Rex and his band of yes men understand is money and power. If people don’t go, it will send a powerful message.

      • I’m so disappointed that someone feels the need to distroy every community event that I have grown up with and shared with family and friends for 63 years.

        • Rex can care less about this community. He lives in a mansion in Laguna. The AV is his personal ATM. He picks his council and all the boards in this valley and they bow down to him because he has money. We should expect nothing less from him and his puppets. They don’t care about us.

  5. September is not any cooler than August in the Antelope Valley. I wonder who came up with that BS on the fair board? And who’s bright idea to not have animals at a fair. So technically it’s not a fair anymore it’s now a swap meet with rides. Think we are witnessing the end of the fair AV residents.

    • Yes I agree Tom… it’s so sad! Why can’t it be the way it used to be when we were younger 15 years ago or so, we look forward to going and taking our children every year now we wanna take our grandchildren and like you said no animals? That’s what affair has and you look forward to taking your grandchildren to see the little animals it’s gonna be so different with no animals I don’t think I would even waste my money going in anymore!!!!

    • The end of the fair was when it moved to the grass-less, tree-less, and now animal-less location. It’s important to make events unique to the area. The fair is now just another carnival.

    • We still have the four points swap meet. Good times, good local people.

  6. The poppy festival was a disgrace nothing about it said Poppy! Just a way to take the already highly inflated area for a ride right down the black hole! I don’t know who is running things in Lancaster but it certainly is not someone that knows the real needs of the people that live here!

    • Our mayor R. Rex Parris runs things in Lancaster. He runs everything here and in Palmdale. He doesn’t live here. He has a house here but he has a beach house in Laguna. He doesn’t know or care about the needs of the people who live here because he doesn’t live here.

  7. Terrible idea.
    The livestock exhibits are a huge part of the AV Fair, it’s why many of us who have lived in this valley for decades attend.
    To call the poppy festival a success is short sighted – many of us were excited for what the poppy festival was, not what it was turned into. An overpriced carnival, with less craft booths and 2hr waits for food.
    No thanks…. The good old boys are missing the point and ruining long standing valley tradition, again.

    • My Goodness, it’s about time the Fair has been moved to a cooler time of the year.
      August is a lousy, hot time of the year for a fair in this valley. At least, at the newer fairgrounds.
      Late August was not bad at the old fairgrounds mostly because the amenities there made the atmosphere cooler.

    • You need to have animals.Its part of the tradition and draw .Kids in urban don’t see what a real farm animal brings.The bees,goats, all of it.Huge Mistake…been going for 17 years with my family.Its coming to an end.Profit more important than traditional

  8. This is the perfect name for the fair. Indeed what a ride Rex and the Lancaster good old boy network have taken the taxpayers in for decades. Frivolous lawsuits, boondoggle pet projects, no bid contracts, insider deals on the sale and purchase of properties, and nepotism. Lancaster is more of a circus than a fair but the name says it all.

  9. That’s a horrible idea! The livestock shows, competition and auction is part of the festivities of the fair! For generations, the AV Fair and Alfalfa Festival has been a culmination of hard work for local ranchers with the judging of the hay exhibits and fun competition in the Rural Olympics. The 4-H, FFA , and Grange kids work all year to bring their projects of all kinds to be judged against their peers. Not just livestock, but baking, cake decorating, sewing, photography, etc. School children have field trips to the fair to see these things. Separating them by a month really isolates the different projects. How can it possibly work without doing away with these things, one at a time. It’s certainly not what our founding families built up over a century ago….

    • I just went to the poppy festival. One of the most frustrating things you do have handicapped people maybe not permanently. The one thing you offer is wheel chairs. Why not electric. People will be able to stay at the festive longer. Some people have issues with mobility

    • It’s all about saving a failed model, so it is now a carnival. This group of city meddlers have run this into the ground where you need to promote crap and people are suppose to think it is our community. This whole move of the fairgrounds has been a utter failure.

      • It may be a carnival but what a carnival it is. If you get lucky and Marv and the good old boys invite you into the back rooms, you can get your fill of free booze and food, all on the taxpayer’s dime. It’s good to be alive and one of Rex’s boys in Lancaster.

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    • Might as well do away with everything local as they started with removing the non profits making and selling the food we all loved to buy and be a part of local funraising for great causes that we supported locally. The politacally appointed Fair Board have completely destroyed what was a wonderful community event. It started with the whole relocation of the beloved Fair. This insider effort was so some local yahoo can make themselves and their friends a lot of money flipping the land over and over and they got the public to pay for the infrastructure too. That public investment allowed the private landowners in the general vacinity got another freebee at no charge and it sure did increase the value for the insider good ol boys. All this is crimanal but don’t expect any charges being filed as that is all Buisness as Usual.