The price tag of the Orange County Fair keeps going up for just about everyone.
But there’s one group that continues to have easy, free access to the fair — local politicians and their guests.
A Voice of OC review of the fair’s public ticket disclosures found that fair board members used nearly $20,000 worth of free tickets last year, and that over 30 OC city council members, one state assemblywoman and one congressman also got free tickets to the fair alongside exclusive dinners.
About 300 other VIPs got free tickets to the exclusive dinners as well, which served meals including tomahawk steak and sliced pork loin and cost a combined total of over $22,000.
Those are just some of the 8,000 free tickets dispersed last year with little to no public conversation, most of which went to nonprofits.
There isn’t any public discussion deciding who receives tickets or what they’re for beyond the fair board’s state-required disclosures, which only list a person or organization’s name and the total number of tickets they received.
When asked why there isn’t public discussion at board meetings about who gets free tickets, OC Fair Communications Director Terry Moore said the number of donated tickets is included in the fair wrap-up report at the September board meeting each year.
OC’s Leaders Get Private Fancy Dinners on Taxpayer Dime
OC Fair officials have been criticized for years for hosting free, private dinners for top officials and their families while prices for the public — like admission and parking — increase.
Dubbed “Business Development Dinners,” the fair hosts exclusive dining nights for local officials and guests to enjoy meals like short ribs, salmon and beef tenderloin, according to the 2025 dinner menu.
Each year, the fair hosts four of these special dinners, with guests decided by the fair’s CEO, with one dinner set aside exclusively for city leaders and local chambers of commerce.
The dinner for local officials took place on July 31 this year, and included guests such as County Supervisor Katrina Foley, Assemblywoman Diane Dixon and the mayors of Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, Laguna Hills, Lake Forest, Orange, Santa Ana, Seal Beach, Westminster and Yorba Linda.
To see the full list of invited guests, click here.
Guests enjoyed carved steamship beef round, airline chicken breast with port wine shallot sauce, and a cherries jubilee with ice cream for dessert.
To look at the full menu for 2025, click here.
Guests at last year’s dinner included Congressman Lou Correa, Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie Norris, and another 60 tickets given out to city council members from cities including Irvine, Orange, Santa Ana, Huntington Beach, Garden Grove, Costa Mesa and more.
Last year, they were offered a “build your own hamburger and bacon wrapped hot dog bar,” according to the 2024 menus.
The fair has also already hosted a dinner this year for its past directors, current partners, first responders and community education partners on July 24.
The third dinner is scheduled for Aug. 7 for sponsors, business partners, potential business representatives, event promoters and nonprofits. The last dinner is scheduled for Aug. 14 for service providers and the fairgrounds management team.
While the costs for this year’s dinners have not yet been released, last year the fair spent over $22,000 across those meals according to invoice documents Moore sent to Voice of OC.
She also said the 2025 dinners are expected to cost slightly more than last year due to increased food prices.
Reggie Mundekis, a longtime fairgrounds community watchdog, called the exclusive dinners a “schmooze fest” in an interview last Thursday.
“There’s never any discussion in public about what’s happening with these board dinners, who’s managing them, what the rules are and what the costs are,” she said.
“Many people don’t know it’s happening,” she added, “because it happens behind closed doors like a private club, and there’s no way to hold them accountable for the expenses and no way to question it before it happens.”
Moore said the purpose is to create relationships with local groups.
“The business development dinners held during the OC Fair are intended to develop new business relationships and strengthen existing partnerships with organizations that work with OCFEC to host year-round events and the annual OC Fair,” she wrote in an email to Voice of OC in response to questions.
Fair Board Members Take the Best Tickets in Town
Every year, fair board members also get free access to a host of shows that come through the fairgrounds’ Pacific Amphitheatre, and last year they took in a combined $20,000 worth of free tickets.
Board Member Dimetria Jackson took home the most tickets last year, receiving nearly $5,000 worth of shows, including Kool and the Gang and Counting Crows, according to public disclosures reviewed by Voice of OC.
Board Member Natalie Rubalcava took home over $4,500 worth of free tickets to shows including Trevor Noah, Alice Cooper, Keyshia Cole and Eric Bellinger.
That’s on top of another $18,000 worth of free tickets she took from the city of Anaheim as a city councilwoman over the past year, according to the city’s disclosures, for high-profile events such as the Jake Paul and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr fight.
Board Member Robert Ruiz came in third place, with just over $3,000 in tickets.
Board President Nick Kovacevich took home just under $3,000 in tickets.
Board Members Barbara Bagneris and Tanya Bilezikjian each took home around $1,800 worth of free tickets.
Board Member Newton Pham used just under $600 worth of free tickets.
Board Member Doug La Belle took no free tickets according to disclosures.
A total of nearly 1100 free tickets were also given out to “community members,” for the Keyshia Cole concert according to disclosures.
Disclosures for who attended what shows this year have not yet been released.
When asked about how the ticketing process works, Moore didn’t take verbal questions but pointed reporters to the agency’s governance policies over email.
But those policies only state that the CEO and board members have the power to “behest” tickets, with no limits on how many tickets one person may receive or an outline on who receives those tickets.
“The Ticket Administrator shall have the authority, in his or her sole discretion, to establish procedures for the distribution of tickets in accordance with this Policy. All requests for tickets which fall within the scope of this Policy shall be made in accordance with the procedures established by the Ticket Administrator,” reads the policy.
The policy also includes language requiring the legal disclosure of the tickets if accepted.
Moore added that board members are allotted tickets for each show at the Pacific Amphitheatre and can request tickets through the CEO’s office.
Free concert tickets for board members have been a long-standing concern.
In 2008, reporters at the OC Register uncovered that board members gave themselves nearly 9000 free tickets worth $376,532 for concerts at the Pacific Amphitheatre over the course of two years.
Fair board president Nick Kovacevich addressed reporters’ questions, saying each board member is given two tickets to each event in addition to tickets for immediate family members.
“I deeply value the dedication of our OCFEC Board members, who volunteer countless hours to strengthen our community’s cherished assets,” he wrote in an email to Voice of OC.
“Their tireless efforts are reflected in our robust financial performance and meaningful community initiatives. I’m pleased that the State provides a transparent framework allowing Board members to attend Fairground events, as firsthand experience is the best way to truly understand and enhance our operations.”
How Are Free Tickets to the Fair Given Out to Nonprofits?
Moore said each OC Fair Board member receives 600 tickets they can give out to nonprofits of their choosing every year.
She said the nonprofits chosen “serve those in need who would not otherwise be able to attend the annual OC Fair.”
In 2024 all eight board members each handed out free tickets to a variety of nonprofits — totaling 5000 last year.
All the ticket distributions for nonprofits list “economic or business development on behalf of OCFEC” as the reason they were handed out.
Some critics question whether those freebies benefit the fairgrounds in the long run.
“I have never understood how giving out free admission tickets to community groups that ask for them — how that really builds business for the fair,” Mundekis said.
The OC Fair has a webpage that includes ticket disclosure forms for public review, but the disclosure forms often feature dozens of pages going over thousands of tickets across multiple PDFs.
The city of Anaheim, which also regularly files disclosures for free tickets given out at Angel Stadium and the Honda Center, posts PDFs alongside a searchable database – after a series of stories from Voice of OC on the issue.
[Read: Anaheim’s Free Tickets Increasingly Go to Nonprofits, But Insiders Still Benefit]
Ordinary Tickets and Parking Prices Climb
All those free tickets come as prices at the fair have gone up over the last few years.
Last year, prices to park and enter the fairgrounds increased for the second time in a row. Parking rose to $15 last year — that’s more than a weekday general admission ticket to the fair.
Admission costs are also going up. From 2017 to 2022, adult admission cost $12 on weekdays and $14 on weekends, while senior and children’s admission was $7 every day.
In 2023, adult admission increased to $13 on weekdays and $15 on weekends, and the price of senior and children’s admission also rose to $9. Those prices remain this year.
[Read: Orange County Fair Opens This Week As Prices Remain High]
The OC Fair has defended what they charge for parking in social media posts, including one where they shut off the comments after dozens of commenters asked why the parking wasn’t free or called for a lower price.
After they were asked by Voice of OC about turning off the comments, they were put back up.
“Everything inside is already overpriced too,” one user commented. “Parking should be free or $5 at most for a county fair.”
Gibran Stout, who closely follows the OC Fair Board, recalled the public meeting when leaders voted to increase prices.
“It was all about how much money they can make,” she said in a phone interview.
“It was just greed,” she continued. “Everything is overpriced. It’s supposed to be a public property.”
While fairgoers face higher costs, OC Fair staff are also sitting on $52 million in reserves, which has also been steadily increasing since 2009 — excluding a dip in 2020 during the pandemic and another $15 million decrease in 2023.
The fair board also approved plans in 2022 to spend $24 million expanding an administrative building at the Fair and Event Center. Since initial approval, the cost estimate increased to $30 million.
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.
Angelina Hicks is the Voice of OC Collegiate News Service Editor. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.
