Tradition Meets Imagination at the Napa Town and Country Fair

Summary: The Napa Town & Country Fair returns to the Napa Valley Expo on Thursday, Aug. 6, for a four-day run through Aug. 9. Napa Valley Expo CEO Corey Oakley has spent five years layering new attractions onto the fair’s agricultural and artistic exhibits, including a rebuilt youth art gallery, a drag review that was a finalist this year for the Western Fairs Association’s top program award and a Steampunk-themed makers market. Live music runs daily on three stages, with headliners including Niko Moon, Lonestar, Régulo Caro, Noel Torres and Gerardo “El Jerry” Coronel. Tickets are sold online only for the third consecutive year.

Photo note: Many of these images were made by the late Bob McClenahan, a friend and contributor to Napa Valley Features, and are used with permission.

“Being in the room was just as important as winning,” — Napa Valley Expo CEO Corey Oakley

NAPA, Calif. — For generations, the Napa Town & Country Fair has celebrated agricultural heritage with livestock, blue ribbons, carnival rides, creative entries and concerts. As Napa County has changed, the fair has changed with it.

The 2026 fair opens Thursday, Aug. 6, for a four-day run through Aug. 9 at the Napa Valley Expo in downtown Napa. No two days at the fair are alike, and Oakley describes this year’s programming as among the most ambitious the fair has attempted.

Napa Valley Expo CEO Corey Oakley has faced the same question since he arrived to manage the exposition five years ago: how a fair that dates to 1920 can stay relevant while preserving the traditions for which people return.

Rather than dropping the agricultural and artistic exhibits, Oakley has layered new experiences on top of them.

Working with his team, he has created stage time for local musicians, moved youth art into a museum-style gallery and added a drag review, a hands-on farm for children, a Steampunk-themed makers market for artists, quilters and craftspeople, Disney-themed family entertainment and a new western-inspired watering hole, the Palisades Saloon, with line-dancing and karaoke.

Individually, each reads as a separate attraction. Together, they reflect Oakley’s strategy of modernizing the fair while keeping it rooted in agriculture, community and local talent.

The building that showcases youth entries in photography, painting and other crafts has been rebuilt as an interactive installation. In past years the work hung in a fluorescent-lit room. The new Young Creators Gallery is a dark room lit by museum-style spotlights with a repurposed parade float as its centerpiece. The float, a garden-themed entry from the Fourth of July parade, was built by local youth through a partnership with Nimbus Arts and the Napa Valley Education Foundation.

Visitors travel through a tunnel lined with flowers, foliage and twinkling rainbow lights before reaching a long unicorn in blue, pink and purple.

“I was trying to make this different. We have this walkthrough area for people to get into a more creative, whimsical mindset,” said Cierra Warner, the gallery’s creative director. “They’re entering a different world, a magical neon garden, and then they can come through and explore the arts and crafts in a calm setting.”

The low-lit gallery also includes music and activities such as a shadow wall, an oversized Lite-Brite, light and sand tables, and glow-in-the-dark stars, all chosen so the youth artwork remains the focus. Warner said the unicorn, which greets every visitor at the entrance, is her favorite element.

The Fierce & Fabulous Drag Review returns Friday, Aug. 7, on the Surfside Bandstand. Earlier this year the program was named one of three finalists for the Merrill Award, the Western Fairs Association’s top program honor, alongside the Arizona State Fair’s Field of Giants and the Siskiyou County Library Fair, which won. The Expo also took first place in the association’s diversity category at its Achievement Awards for the same program.

Oakley said the recognition carried weight for many people in the LGBTQ+ community.

“Being in the room was just as important as winning,” he said.

Sasha Devaroe hosts again this year, joined by Lady Camden, the San Francisco performer who was runner-up on Season 14 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” The DJ Rotten Robbie Dance Party follows.

Chardonnay Hall, the largest exhibit building at the Napa Valley Expo, houses the Makers Market Art and Quilt Show. Rose Luce, president of the Napa Valley Quilters, manages the market, which carries a Steampunk theme this year.

“Industrial meets science fiction,” Luce said, describing the genre, which pairs retro-futuristic design with antique parts, gears and materials. “Nothing electric, it’s all steam-made; it’s the way that things used to be put together.”

“Not a lot of people know what it is, so we thought we’d introduce it as it seems to be a growing genre,” Luce said. “There are Steampunk groups that dress in costume and hold reenactments.”

Luce said participants are traveling from as far as Vallejo, Sacramento and Humboldt County.

Luce, an avid quilter, said she became involved five years ago, when the exhibit was close to being discontinued. Adult entries in arts and crafts had fallen off after the COVID-19 pandemic. She brought in her quilting group and shifted the building’s focus by inviting makers to demonstrate their work in public. The market opened in its current form in 2022 as the fair’s first Quilt Show and Makers Market.

This year’s demonstrations include a cheese-carver, a sculptor working live in clay, sewing, a 3D printer, woodworking and olive oil education. Devaroe will do her makeup and hair in public each day in a segment the Expo calls Get Ready With Sasha.

Live music runs every day on the Coors Joe Anderson Plaza Stage, the Surfside Bandstand and the Locals Live Stage, all included with admission. Opening night features the Disney tribute show “The Little Mermen and the Princess Pals” at 4 p.m. and “Trouble,” a Coldplay tribute, at 7:30 p.m. Niko Moon performs Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Lonestar Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Sunday brings Régulo Caro and Noel Torres at 4 p.m., followed by headliner Gerardo “El Jerry” Coronel. More than 25 local acts are booked on the Locals Live Stage.

Helm & Sons Amusements, which Oakley called the best in the business, brings new rides and attractions to the midway, including thrill rides making their Napa debut.

Asked whether the changes are an attempt to give the community what it has asked for, Oakley was brief.

“Yeah,” he said. “We are trying.”

Opening day includes free admission for youth ages 5 to 12, seniors 63 and older, and active-duty military members with valid identification. Children 4 and under are admitted free daily with a paid adult. Parking is $14 per vehicle, sold onsite the day of, with no in-and-out privileges.

For the third year, tickets are sold online only, with no onsite ticket booth. A QR code posted at the gates allows instant purchase for fairgoers who did not buy in advance.

The Napa Town & Country Fair is at 575 Third St. in downtown Napa. Gates open at 3 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. No admission is permitted after 9 p.m., and the fair closes at 10 p.m. each night. For the complete schedule, tickets and ride wristbands, visit napafair.org.

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Lisa Adams Walter is a Napa Valley based writer.

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