There is a 1942 barracks building on the OC Fair & Event Center grounds on Fair Drive. It was built for the Santa Ana Army Air Base, which covered the land where the fairgrounds sits now. Since 2017 it has been Heroes Hall, a veterans museum with 3,600 square feet of exhibit space plus a courtyard and Walk of Honor that add 5,000 more. On Saturday, Nov. 14, the museum opens its next long-running exhibit, "Courageous Companions: Animals in American Wars." Admission and parking are free.
The new exhibit is also a good way to see how the fairgrounds runs between now and the new year. It works in two shifts. The free stops keep daytime hours and close by 4 p.m. With one exception, the ticketed events open at 4 p.m. or later. The exception is Saturday, Nov. 14, the only day this season when a paid daytime event and the free stops share the grounds, and the day Heroes Hall opens the new exhibit.
What changes inside the barracks on Nov. 14
"Courageous Companions" covers the animals that served with American troops. It starts with Civil War cavalry horses, moves through World War I messenger pigeons, and ends with today's bomb-detection dogs, told through artifacts, photographs and personal stories. The OC Fair listing has it running through September 2027. That makes it the exhibit Costa Mesa will see for most of the next year.
It replaces "Echoes of Conflict: Remembering Vietnam," which the museum listed as on display through Thursday, Sept. 17. The permanent pieces stay. The current exhibitions page lists:
- The SAAAB Story on the second floor. It covers the Santa Ana Army Air Base as a flight-training center, its airmen, and the base's role in Orange County's growth, using film, photographs, maps, oral histories, art and ephemera.
- An A-4M Skyhawk displayed outdoors.
- The Medal of Honor Courtyard and Orange County Walk of Honor.
- Serenity Walk.
The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., except on holidays and during all-grounds events. That 4 p.m. closing is where this season's split begins.
The 4 p.m. line, stop by stop
The free stops cluster in the morning and early afternoon. Apart from the Junk Hunt's Saturday session, the paid ones begin when the free ones end.
Stop | Cost | When it runs |
|---|---|---|
Heroes Hall Museum | Free admission and parking | Wed–Sun, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. |
Centennial Farm | Free, no reservation needed | Weekdays 1–4 p.m., weekends 10 a.m.–4 p.m. |
Certified Farmers Market, Lot D | Free admission and parking | Thursdays, 9 a.m.–1 p.m. |
The Great Junk Hunt | Tickets $11–$21, parking $15 | Fri., Nov. 13, 4–9 p.m.; Sat., Nov. 14, 9 a.m.–4 p.m. |
Winter Fest OC, Lot A | Admission varies, parking $15 | Opens Nov. 27; earliest start is 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, 5 p.m. most other days |
Centennial Farm is the working farm on the grounds, and it keeps hours close to the museum's. Both close at 4 p.m. every day they are open. The farmers market, certified by the OC Farm Bureau, is finished by 1 p.m. On the other side of the table, Winter Fest OC never opens before 4 p.m. on any listed day. A household that only visits the fairgrounds after dark is seeing only the paid shift.
The general fairgrounds parking rate is $15, cash only, with no in-and-out privileges. The free stops each list free parking for their own visitors. That difference in cost is why the timing matters.
Saturday, Nov. 14, when the two shifts overlap
Saturday, Nov. 14, is the exception. On Friday the 13th, the Great Junk Hunt opens its vintage and home-decor market in the Anaheim Building, the Los Alamitos Building, the OC Promenade and The Hangar. It stays open Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. On Saturday, Heroes Hall holds its Veterans Day Celebration from noon to 3 p.m. That puts a paid event and a free one on the same grounds for three hours.
Here is how Saturday lays out on the published schedules:
- 9 a.m. Early Bird entry for the Junk Hunt, $13.
- 10 a.m. Junk Hunt general admission starts at $11, and children 12 and under get in free. Heroes Hall opens on its regular hours.
- Noon The Veterans Day Celebration opens with an aircraft flyover. Through the afternoon there is live music, an inflatable obstacle course, family activities, and local veteran organizations to meet. The Orange County Employee Association is serving free hot dogs and potato chips, with other food for sale.
- 3 p.m. The celebration ends.
- 4 p.m. The Junk Hunt and Heroes Hall both close.
Friday's Junk Hunt tickets are $21 for First Pick at 4 p.m. and $16 for Early Bird at 6 p.m. Both are good on Saturday too. Anyone who wants the vintage market and the flyover on the same day can make it a single trip.
The two events list parking differently. The Heroes Hall exhibit listing says parking is free. The Junk Hunt listing charges $15. If you're coming only for the celebration, call Heroes Hall at 714-708-1613 or email [email protected] before you leave to ask which entrance to use that day. Rideshare drop-off and pickup is at Gate 1 off Fair Drive. OCTA bus routes 47, 55, 71 and 178 serve the fairgrounds, and bike racks are at the Blue, Green and Yellow Gates.
Thanksgiving week, when the free shift steps back
After the Nov. 14 overlap, the free shift fills the next week. Centennial Farm hosts Discovery Day on Friday, Nov. 20, from 9 a.m. to noon, with free admission and parking but a required reservation. It includes self-guided tours, planting, lessons on chicks and crops, an oxen demonstration and time with the livestock. The next morning, UC Master Food Preservers lead a food-preservation class at the farm, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., for $45. The farmers market is on the fairgrounds calendar for Thursday, Nov. 19.
Then the schedule turns over. The farm calendar shows the farm closed Nov. 24 through 27. After Nov. 19, the next market date on the fairgrounds calendar is Dec. 3. Winter Fest OC opens Friday, Nov. 27, from 5 to 10 p.m. in Lot A. Hours that first weekend are 4 to 11 p.m. Saturday and 4 to 10 p.m. Sunday. The Orange County Register also reports the Nov. 27 to Jan. 3 run and notes that the festival is open on select days. So Thanksgiving weekend is when the paid evening shift takes over the grounds.
December, read by the clock
Winter Fest's early-December weekends are short. It runs Dec. 3 to 5, from Thursday through Saturday, and then Dec. 10 to 13, from Thursday through Sunday. From Dec. 17 it is open every day through Jan. 3: 5 to 10 p.m. on weekdays, 4 to 11 p.m. on Saturdays, and 4 to 10 p.m. on Sundays. New Year's Eve runs from 5 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Its official site advertises nightly tree lighting, snow play, a holiday light trail, live entertainment, and Santa through Dec. 24.
The free shift keeps its daytime hours through the month:
- Thursday market mornings on Dec. 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Lot D. On Dec. 3, 10 and 17, Winter Fest opens at 5 p.m. that same evening, and the market will have closed four hours earlier.
- A winter-wreath class at Centennial Farm on Saturday, Dec. 5, in two sessions: 9:30 a.m. to noon and 1 to 3:30 p.m. The fee is $85. Both sessions are over before Winter Fest opens at 4 p.m. that Saturday.
- Heroes Hall, Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., except on holidays and during all-grounds events. "Courageous Companions" stays on view the whole time.
All of this happens on a single property, and the clock decides what you pay. Arrive Wednesday through Sunday before 4 p.m. and you can see the cavalry horses, the Skyhawk and the farm's livestock without buying a ticket. Arrive after 5 p.m. on Dec. 17 and you're in the ticketed festival.
The Annie Clougherty Team follows how Costa Mesa spends its weekends, from Fair Drive to the Eastside. If you'd like help timing a move around this season, or want to talk about how your home fits into the city's calendar, Annie Clougherty is glad to meet. Request a private consultation.
