Ventura County Fairgrounds Finds Its Footing

SEASIDE SCENE: The Ventura County Fairgrounds and Events Center stages major music and other festivals and this year hosted the X Games. (Getty Images)

Seaside setting has maximum flexibility for indoor, outdoor events

The Ventura County Fairgrounds and Event Center, a 62-acre, indoor-outdoor, state-owned facility about a 70-mile drive northwest from downtown Los Angeles, has been firing on all cylinders with a steady schedule of hundreds of events, including some well-attended concerts and festivals.

“We have multiple events, usually every single weekend and some throughout the week,” said Megan Hook, the fairgrounds’ public information officer. “It’s changed dramatically over the last decade. There’s been growing interest in ‘the community’s fairgrounds.’”

Versatility is one of the grounds’ strong points. Its parking lot, used at times for multi-day traveling circus engagements and other events, was the scene of socially distanced concerts during the height of the COVID pandemic.

The various exhibit halls and outdoor spaces at the site allow for concerts of virtually any size up to 15,000, said Jason Amelio, who has been the fairgrounds’ sales manager since 1019.

An event of 10,000-15,000 can be staged outdoors in the area where the carnival midway sits during fair time. “That’s the area where you’re going to do it; the buildings are a little more limited” said Amelio, who does not book the fair time talent.

“If you’re in the range of 5,000 to 8,000 people, we’re the kind of venue you’re going to look at when there isn’t a more traditional venue available,” he said.

Amelio ran horse racing at the facility for 13 years before becoming sales director, but his relationship with the grounds stretches across 36 years. As an 11-year-old, he sold fair rodeo programs and the like.

“We’re really a blank slate,” he said. “If you’re coming in, and you’re a touring metal band who’s going to have 1,000 or 2,000 people show up, it might not be worth it to you to do all the infrastructure, bringing in your own stage and lighting and security and all that. They probably would be better to go to Ventura Theatre or Santa Barbara Bowl. But if you’re a Punk in the Park — the yearly punk festival we’ve done the last couple years that’s sort of like a little brother to the Warped Tour-type of thing — then you’re looking at that 3,000 to 5000 range. The Ventura Theatre, obviously, is going to be too small for you and that’s a big enough crowd that it’s worth putting in the temporary infrastructure to run a concert like that.”

The grounds are open to any show or festival organizer, although there have been some promoters, such as CBF Productions, that stage events regularly at the fairgrounds. CBF staged more than 50 drive-in shows at the Fairgrounds during the summer of 2020.

“We’ll take applications from anybody,” Amelio said. “We’ve got an open-door policy where we’ll take a look and if we have the space on the calendar and your references check out, we’re gonna make it work.”

“We are not picky on our end,” adds Hook. “We want people to use it in a way that makes sense for them. It’s kind of a blank canvas for just about anyone’s vision.”

Located right on the coast near one of the area’s top surfing breaks, the fairgrounds has access to Amtrak’s downtown Pacific Surfliner stop.

“The train literally stops at our front gates,” Hook said.

This year, the grounds hosted the X Games, a booking years in the making. The high-visibility extreme sports competition wrapped just a week before the annual fair.

“For the X Games, seeing that on television, it’s just postcard perfect,” said Hook. “It doesn’t get prettier. We have a great backdrop.”

The facility does a fair share of move and television-related business — it recently had shoots for a Nissan ad and a taping of “Motor Mythbusters” — and hosts the springtime Skull and Roses Festival, staged by Chris Mitrovich since 2017, which draws 3,000-4,000, on average, but enjoyed a post-COVID surge to about 5,000 in 2022, Amelio said.

The grounds’ Ventura Raceway still runs two to thee times a month.

“We’re at a level where we are staying busy and I have to say no a lot more than I did in 2019,” Amelio said. “We were very private event heavy prior to COVID. The event this weekend is an event I booked last September.”

“We want to keep it belonging to the community, but there are a lot of great things happening that nobody’s known about,” Hook said. “It’s time to shine the light on everything that the fairground can do.”

“We are not picky on our end,” adds Hook. “We want people to use it in a way that makes sense for them. It’s kind of a blank canvas for just about anyone’s vision.”

Located right on the coast near one of the area’s top surfing breaks, the fairgrounds has access to Amtrak’s downtown Pacific Surfliner stop.

“The train literally stops at our front gates,” Hook said.

This year, the grounds hosted the X Games, a booking years in the making. The high-visibility extreme sports competition wrapped just a week before the annual fair.

“For the X Games, seeing that on television, it’s just postcard perfect,” said Hook. “It doesn’t get prettier. We have a great backdrop.”

The facility does a fair share of move and television-related business — it recently had shoots for a Nissan ad and a taping of “Motor Mythbusters” — and hosts the springtime Skull and Roses Festival, staged by Chris Mitrovich since 2017, which draws 3,000-4,000, on average, but enjoyed a post-COVID surge to about 5,000 in 2022, Amelio said.

The grounds’ Ventura Raceway still runs two to thee times a month.

“We’re at a level where we are staying busy and I have to say no a lot more than I did in 2019,” Amelio said. “We were very private event heavy prior to COVID. The event this weekend is an event I booked last September.”

“We want to keep it belonging to the community, but there are a lot of great things happening that nobody’s known about,” Hook said. “It’s time to shine the light on everything that the fairground can do.”