Happy Friday.

Hey guys, the headline is pretty obvious this weekend.

We are officially in peak fair season, and yes, the Napa Town & Country Fair is going to take up a pretty good chunk of today’s Game Plan.

But don’t worry. I have my tips, tricks and a few more niche things worth knowing about beyond just showing up, buying something fried and wandering around the carnival.

But first, trivia.

The Napa Town & Country Fair has been around in one form or another for a very long time.

Before the current fair became what we know today, Napa had already been holding its annual fair at the same general site since the late 1800s.

What was the Napa Valley Expo property originally known as?

A. Napa Agricultural Grounds
B. East Napa Park
C. Silverado Fairgrounds
D. Napa Stock Pavilion

The Napa Town & Country Fair is back this weekend, running Thursday through Sunday at the Expo, and this is probably going to be the biggest thing happening in town.

You already know the basics. But if this is your first year, yes, there will be rides, fried food, livestock, kids running around with giant stuffed animals, and lots and lots of foot traffic all over downtown and going across those bridges.

So be careful driving, and maybe do not stress too much about finding the absolute perfect parking spot.

And as per Napa Lowdown tradition, instead of just telling you to “go to the fair” and ride the rides, I wanted to point out a few of the things that I think make our fair a little more special.

For first-timers, I would say one of the most unique parts is the livestock side.

Maybe not most people in town, but drive just a little outside of it and there is still a pretty significant ranch and agricultural community around us. Local 4-H and FFA kids spend months raising animals for the shows and auction, with sheep, goats, pigs, cattle, rabbits, poultry and more making their way through the fair.

There is something pretty cool about seeing that side of Napa when we spend so much of the year talking about agriculture almost exclusively through wine.

And here is one I definitely would not have known about without doing some digging.

There is even a free olive oil tasting inside the Makers Market in Chardonnay Hall. A professional olive oil producer who was apparently there last year is coming back with single-varietal oils, flavored oils, red wine vinegars and balsamic to taste. I actually found locals online talking about this one and saying they remembered him from last year’s fair, which is exactly the kind of oddly specific recommendation I am looking for. Here’s that link: https://www.reddit.com/r/napalocals/comments/1vgbb4j/free_olive_oil_tasting_at_the_fair/

Basically, if you are going, my advice is not to treat the fair like one giant carnival. Ride something ridiculous. Eat something fried. Obviously.

But go see the animals. Walk through the 4-H exhibits. Wander into one of those odd little halls you normally would have passed right by.

I think that is probably the best version of the Napa fair anyway.

Details

Dates: Thursday, August 6 through Sunday, August 9

Location: Napa Valley Expo, 575 Third St., Napa

Link: https://napafair.org/

If one fair is not enough for you this weekend, there is another one about an hour away that I think is worth knowing about.

And this one trades the grapes for apples.

The Gravenstein Apple Fair is happening Saturday and Sunday at Ragle Ranch Regional Park in Sebastopol, right in the middle of peak Gravenstein season.

If you have never had one, Gravensteins are a pretty big deal over there.

The fair has been around since 1973 and was originally created by Sonoma County Farm Trails to celebrate the apple and the agricultural community around it. More than 50 years later, that is still basically what the whole weekend is about - There is live music, local food and drink, farm animals, demonstrations, arts and crafts and plenty for kids.

But naturally, the apples are the main event. Fresh Gravensteins, pies, juice, cider, fritters, caramel apples and pretty much every other possible way you can serve an apple show up somewhere around the fair.

There are apple-balancing contests, apple juggling, a caramel-apple eating contest for kids and a pie-baking competition on Sunday. Honestly, I kind of love how committed they are to the theme.

So if you want to make a little field trip out of the weekend, this seems like a pretty good excuse - Might as well go see what the neighbors are doing with apples.

Details

Day, Date, Time: Saturday, August 8 and Sunday, August 9, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Location: Ragle Ranch Regional Park, 500 Ragle Road, Sebastopol

Tickets: Adults are $23 in advance and $30 after August 7; kids 6 to 12 are $10 in advance and $15 after August 7; kids 5 and under are free.

Link: https://gravensteinapplefair.com/

And the answer to today’s trivia:

B. East Napa Park.

Long before we knew it as the Napa Valley Expo, the property was known as East Napa Park, with the East Napa Pavilion serving as a gathering place for fairs and community events going all the way back to the late 1800s.

Kind of cool considering we are still heading to basically the same part of town more than a century later to do pretty much the same thing.

So that is the weekend. Not a bad little mix.

Have fun at the fair, be patient with the traffic, and enjoy another August weekend while we have them.

See you Monday for Town Notes.

Callie