A scaled-down version of fair coming to Chico
Memorial Day Carnival and Food Festival slated for later this month in place of the annual Silver Dollar Fair.
CHICO >> Carnival rides and the smell of traditional fair food will make a return to the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds at the end of the month.
It won’t be the Silver Dollar Fair, but it will be a scaled- down version.
The Memorial Day Weekend Carnival and Food Festival will run May 27- 30 at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds.
The four- day event won’t have large- scale concerts and the buildings at the fairgrounds won’t be filled with different exhibits.
But it will have a sprint car race, a fireworks show and feature most of the carnival rides and fair food.
“We’re excited for the community to be able to get out and do something. We just like to see the people on the grounds that we haven’t seen in a whole year,” said Nick DiGrazia, CEO of the Silver Dollar Fair. “Before this, the community has gone through a lot with the Camp Fire, then gets hit with COVID. It’s a lot for our community. We’re here trying to be a fun space for people. Hopefully, we can bring back a little bit of fun.”
The carnival will be scaled down a bit, DiGrazia said. There won’t be any enclosed carnival rides in order to comply with COVID-19 protocols.
Other attractions that will be on hand include the Live Shark Encounter, a Puppets and Players Little Theatre show, Saint Gabriel’s Celestial Brass Band and a fireworks show following the end of the races on Sunday, May 30.
Since Butte County’s COVID-19 cases have been trending downward to an orange tier status, the fair got the green light to take place, DiGrazia said.
“What helped out was that our county did a great job at vaccinating people,” DiGrazia said.
Since the carnival rides have been in the area, traveling from Tehama and Glenn counties, DiGrazia said it only made sense to add another stop in Chico.
“You can’t stop them. It costs them so much money to move (the rides) around,” DiGrazia said. “That’s one of our considerations to do this to make sure they have a spot to go.”
The annual Junior Livestock Auction will be taking place, however, it’ll be closed to the public.
“We’re keeping that contained due to COVID. We can only have so many people in that space,” DiGrazia said. “We want to protect the livestock kids, they have a lot into those projects. It’s like a closed show now.”
Restricting the Junior Livestock Auction was one of the reasons the event isn’t bearing the Silver Dollar Fair name.
“We didn’t want to call it the Silver Dollar Fair because you’re not getting the same experience,” DiGrazia said. “We’re still hoping everyone has a good time.”
General admission is also more affordable, DiGrazia said.
For Thursday, May 27 and Friday, May 28, general admission for anyone 13 and older is $5; kids 12 and under are free. On Saturday, May 29 and Sunday, May 30, those 13 and older are $7; kids ages 6-12 are $2, kids five and under are free. Parking will cost $8 each day.
Carnival tickets and general admission tickets can be purchased online at https:// www. silverdollarfair.org/p/tickets.
DiGrazia said he still is planning to hold a Harvest Fair around Halloween. He said he’s hoping to have an indoor haunted house and possibly some bigger concerts to offer by then. It’ll all hinge on what the COVID-19 situation looks like in October.