It is the largest event in Stanislaus County. For 10 days, more than , visitors attend the acre , m 2 fairgrounds.
There are nightly celebrity concerts, performances on five stages, and over 30 food concessionaires. The fair shows over 30, local talent exhibits, over 1, animals, and more than 35 carnival rides.
The Turlock Melon Carnival was an effort to promote and market the local melon industry and shipping business. A group of musicians was organized to become the Melon City Band. Other than β18, the Melon Carnival lasted only a few years, and in the American Legion Rex Ish Post 88 organized a Fourth of July celebration for largely the same purpose. By the early s, the fairgrounds had grown to 37 acres.
No fairs were held during World War II , although the carnivals and horse pulling events continued in the downtown area. The fairgrounds were turned over to the Wartime Civilian Control Administration, which oversaw the "evacuation" of Japanese Americans from the West Coast under the provisions of Executive Order The Turlock Assembly Center was one of fifteen temporary camps where Japanese Americans were held while the more permanent War Relocation Authority concentration camps were being constructed.
Turlock opened on April 30, , and a total of 3, Japanese Americans from the Sacramento River Delta and Los Angeles areas passed through the camp before it closed on August As in several other WCCA sites, many of the inmates were housed in "apartments" that had been converted from livestock stalls, while others lived in military-style barracks. After the assembly center shut down, the site was converted into a Rehabilitation Center for the U. Army Ninth Service Command , from to The fair resumed operation in , and in the name "Stanislaus County Fair" was used for the first time on the marquee.
