Gold Country Fairgrounds & Event Center — Attraction in Auburn

Two part review:

As for the Fair itself, it's a load of fun at an affordable price. Family friendly at it's core, it makes for a good experience to visit for a night and see the attractions. One issue though: the camels didn't have water for an extended period of time, because when the kids lined up for camel ride, the water barrel was bone dry, and the handler had to fill up the barrel for BOTH camels, and let them drink before they could be ridden. That does NOT seem acceptable to let any animal go that long without water, regardless of the reason.

Second part: As an amateur photographer that participated in exhibiting my photography along with many others, I'm EXTREMELY disappointed in the handling of some of the pieces exhibited. I do not speak for myself, I speak for my significant other who I feel was wronged. We both entered 6 pieces to be exhibited, and when we dropped off our photographs they were all in pristine condition. All photos were framed and sealed in plastic. When we returned a week later to see them in the fair, we were sore to find several of her photos had bent and/or damaged frames, essentially ruining them making them not suitable for future exhibits. One was even unsealed for some reason. But the biggest issue was one photo was missing. After spending 30 mins in the exhibit hall looking for her missing photograph (her BEST photograph out of the 6 she entered), we realized the photograph was actually missing. No one was around to ask about it though, so we waited until we came back to pick up our exhibits. The photograph was still missing, so we picked up our judged pieces and went to the office next door to talk to them about it. The person we spoke to was friendly and understanding of our concerns and grievances, and informed us the photos were stored in a separate room all together while being arranged in the exhibit hall. The assumption was that it may have gotten lost or left elsewhere on accident, but none of the people who set up the event or photos were available to talk to. They took our names and phone number, and we even forwarded the missing photograph to their email so they could know what to look for. Fast forward to next week, there was no communication to us about anything. We reached out in email, appreciative and inquiring if anyone had been talked to, and received a curt 4 word reply. Her photo is STILL missing and I'm disappointed with the level of attention that this matter hasn't received. This was our first time we had ever exhibited or entered any of our photographs to be judged, and were simply excited to see our work on display. Therefore, her first experience was marred with this, and she was potentially cheated out of a chance to have her art judged. We will not let this experience keep us from entering other fairs or contests, but we are fairly certain we won't return to here as exhibitors.

My conclusion: this is a great place to bring the whole family and have fun, with a great atmosphere. But beware if you choose to enter expensive art pieces to be judges, lest they get...

So what's going on with the Gold Country Fairgrounds?

Management of the facility needs to Change, @ a minimum.

We bought 4 tickets in advance for today (Sunday 28 April) for the Rodeo at the Fairgrounds. They were $40 a piece for shaded bleacher seats. We arrived at the start (during National Anthem) and wound up walking around for 30 minutes. Finally found 2 seats (for 5 people in our group, including a 2-year old) where we couldn't see... anything. Left after one hour. Looked a Lot like they oversold the available seating.

Now I hear the Mandarin Festival won't be at GC Fairgrounds next year...its moving to ....Roseville?? This in our minds is one of the Most Iconic events in Auburn. And....its Gone.

Also, the 4th of July Celebration will...not..be at the Fairgrounds.

Finally, no Old Town Pizza on Fairgrounds any longer. After they built that Really Substantial facility there. OTP supports a lot of Auburn activities and now they are Gone too.

I am sure there are other problems with the management that I am not aware of.

What will the City Council and the State do?

(Something...

We really enjoy attending functions at these fairgrounds. The landscaping is tidy and the building look well cared for. I'm told that the Old Town Pizza has great pizza, unfortunately I had too much pizza this week so I skipped it today. I can tell you, because I'm old that it had the "Old Time Pizza" oven smell which is pretty awesome. The food venders are all using signs claiming to have "Fresh Lemonade" but the all three cups we bought from two different venders tasted like it was fresh lemonade flavored Kool-Aid. Two places were selling hand dipped corndogs but you should only get them from the place that looks like a hotdog on a stick from the mall, but be sure to make sure they give you a "jumbo" if you order a jumbo corndog. The other hand dipped corn dog place tasted like their fryer was only set for 250°. The fries and the corndog were on the soggy side. There was a place called Koko's Korean Teriyaki and the grilled chicken was great but the friend rice was bland and barely warm because they keep it in a warmer until...