El Paso County Fair opening weekend

(COLORADO SPRINGS) — The 119th El Paso County Fair is underway from Saturday, July 13 through Saturday, July 20. The community is invited to head out to Calhan to enjoy some of the best entertainment in Southern Colorado. The El Paso County Fair has everything from giant turkey legs to funnel cakes, carnival rides, and even a rodeo.

“We had fried Oreos, nachos, and lemonade oh, and the freeze-dried nerd gummy clusters,” says Reyna Gonzalez, an eleven-year-old who enjoyed her time at the fair.

The El Paso County Fair is officially here and this year’s theme is “It’s Epic Out Here.”

“How do we be epic out here? We started with our free entertainment, which is included with fair admission. So, with our pirate high dive show, that felt pretty epic. Then we brought in the Lumberjacks, and then we brought in our fire stage show and the point at which we had water, land, and fire covered,” said Andschana Aljets the fair’s special event supervisor.

The fair offers everything from turkey legs, and all things fired carnival food, Sparrow Kilgore is the Colorado Junior Princess, and she says the food is her favorite part of the festivities.

“My favorite food is pickles,” said Sparrow, “We’re very enthused about the pickles,” added her mother.

This year the fair has new live entertainment including high-flying acrobatics, a Pirate Dive show, a lumberjack show, and tons more to do.

New events will continue throughout the week, including a Silent Goat Disco, a Friday night arena concert, an Epic Era’s Tour, and junior bull riding.

“We love to bring the kids out every once in a while. Get them out, get them out in the county, see all the different stuff. Lots of great things to do out here in the county, different parks at the fair out here. So, it’s a good time for the family and everything like that,” added Justin Kilgore, Sparrow Kilgore’s father.

Another change the El Paso County Fair has planned is a Sensory Day. The event is meant to provide a safe and fun environment for those who get overstimulated.

“Whether that’s turning down the volume or maybe one performer at a time, whatever small adjustments they can make to still bring quality but make it a little bit more family sensitive, we will have the Autism Society up in Whitmore with a sensory space, so when those families need to recharge, they’ll have a space to do that,” said Aljets.

Each year a new queen is crowned as the El Paso County Fair Queen, and this year it is Matty Norton.

“I would say to just have fun with it. The best I do whenever I’m doing Fair Queen is when I’m relaxed and calm and trying to have a good time, so just have fun,” added Norton while giving advice to this year’s competitors for the 2025 title.

The El Paso County Fair runs from now through Saturday, July 20th. There’s daily entertainment free with admission as well as extra ticketed events. For more information on how to get tickets check El Paso County’s website.

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