Today’s column is being published on April 30, the start of the 2025 Los Banos May Day Fair, also known as the Merced County Spring Fair.
For me, this will be the 53rd May Day Fair since I moved to Los Banos. Over the years I’ve seen my kids (and later my grandkids) enjoy carnival rides, display projects and show animals. I’ve also participated in fair beer booths, sometimes as a pourer, more often as a consumer.
In last week’s Westside Express, a May Day Fair Tab was included, which described the many activities, events and foods planned for the 2025 fair. (By the way, the person coordinating all of this is Los Banos Fairgrounds Manager Cinnamon Howell, and I congratulate her on organizational and leadership skills.)
For those who haven’t seen or saved the April 23 fair tab, today I’m providing a service by highlighting some of the events, activities and foods described in the tab, especially those I’m looking forward to.
Some of my favorite events involve young people showing animals. During the mornings of April 30 and May 1, you can see young people from ages 4 through 18 showing swine, lambs and goats. On May 2 rabbits will be featured.
On Saturday, May 3, the Junior Livestock Auction will be filled with drama and action, as folks bid on the animals the young people have shown. It’s especially dramatic for the young people, hoping to get enough dollars for their animals to at least pay for all the costs involved in raising them.
I’m a fan of free entertainment, and this year there will be five different free concerts, one each night of the fair, featuring Outlaw Mariachi, Songs of the Eagles Tribute, Chad Bushnell, Tribute to Jimmy Buffet, and Jaripeo Ranchero.
For those who like a lot of action, it’s hard to beat the Destruction Derby Friday night and the Truck and Tractor Pulls Saturday night. As Westside Express reporter Lena Magee wrote in the tab, “Get ready for a crash course at the destruction derby” and “be prepared for lots of noise, lots of smoke and a whole lot of fun at the Truck and Tractor Pulls.”
Those events are the obvious ones to see. But, if you like food, buckle up for intense competition at the many food contests, including contests for the best cheesecake, cookies, almond delights, bacon bites and sausages. There will even be something that sounds like a food fight but isn’t—namely “cupcake-muffin wars” on Wednesday evening.
All of these food contests may be stirring my readers’ appetites, so let me talk about some of the specialty foods fairgoers can choose from this year. For this, I turn to TWE reporter Janet Miller’s article in the tab, where, among “so many delicious treats to choose” she recommends “the signature funnel cakes from Fat Franky, the oversized pretzels from PHD & Me and the creative ice cream concoctions from the Fruit Caboose.”
Children, as well as adults, will enjoy the many foods vendors serve, and they will also enjoy two special exhibits for kids, “Barbara and Louie’s Little Hands on the Farm” and a petty zoo. As Miller wrote, “At Little Hands, children are taught farming basics with learning-by-doing.”
“The petting zoo exhibit,” as TWE reporter Christina Rocha wrote, “draws from a network of dedicated community supporters who bring a variety of animals to the fairgrounds,” with which “fairgoers can interact in a general area and in another place with smaller and younger animals.”
Also for kids, as well as adults, will be, as always, a variety of the carnival rides this year to include, as Miller wrote, “the Zillerator Coaster, Cyclone, Orbiter, Himalaya, Hot Wheels, Century Wheel, Alien Invasion, Zipper, Ring of Fire, a Carousel, Scrambler, Jurassic Funhouse, Pirates of the Midway Funhouse, Roadsters, Jumping Jumbos, Ella’s Wet Boats, Bigfoot Trucks, Wacky Worm Family Coaster, 1st Squadron, Dragon Wagon, Kid Wheel, Dizzy Dragon, Jet Ski, Frog Hopper, Renegade, Firehouse and Rockin’ Tug.”
If you’re like me, you’re getting dizzy thinking about all these choices.
There is much more going on at the fair, as the May Day Tab reported. I hope all fairgoers, both from near and far, get a chance to explore as many exhibits, events, activities and foods as possible.
The best bet to find me at the fair will be at one of the beer booths, where this year I won’t be pouring.
John Spevak’s email is john.spevak@gmail.com.
