The Mid-Winter Fair

The Imperial County Mid-Winter Fair, El Centro.

The Mid-Winter Fair runs in February or March, taking advantage of the one weather advantage the Imperial Valley unambiguously has: it’s warm when everywhere else is not.

The livestock auctions are what I remember most. Imperial County is agricultural — alfalfa, lettuce, onions, cattle — and the fair reflects this. Kids from the 4-H and FFA programs have been raising animals all year for this moment. The auction is where you find out what your animal is worth. There’s a specific gravity to it that’s different from the carnival rides and the fried food and the exhibits.

Growing up in El Centro, the Mid-Winter Fair was an annual fixture. You went because there wasn’t much else in February. You ate fair food and watched the auctions and looked at the prize vegetables, which are not different in kind from vegetables anywhere but are somehow impressive when someone has grown them to competition standard in desert heat.

The fair has been running since 1908. It’s one of the oldest in California. Most people outside the Imperial Valley have never heard of it, which is exactly what you’d expect — it’s not designed for people outside the Imperial Valley. It’s designed for the people who live there and have been growing things there for a hundred years.

I try to go when I’m in El Centro in February. The onions are particularly good.