It is the largest annual event in the San Joaquin Valley, attracting around 600,000 people each October during its twelve-day run featuring exhibits, a livestock show, live horse racing, musical entertainment, educational programs and more.

[1] The Fair provides a link between urban and rural California, serving as a tool to educate visitors on the region's rich agricultural industry.

A group of local businessmen, growers and ranchers formed an organization called the "Fresno Fair Grounds Association" in February 1883.

Following official admission to the National Trotting Association, the first races occurred in May 1884 and the new track was assessed to be in "first-class order" by a writer from the Sacramento Bee.

[3] The first Fresno Fair opened in October 1884 and featured a five-day race horse meet, a few produce displays and several head of livestock.

[5] A collective of local banks, churches, merchants associations and the chamber of commerce signed a petition asking for fairgrounds improvements and broke through the county's reluctance to spend.

A commerce building was completed in 1914 and the fair drew governor Hiram Johnson to attend as a guest of honor in 1916.

Fifteen runners from around the state competed and Oliver Millard, of the San Francisco Olympic Club, won.

The Fresno Fairgrounds was the site of one of several temporary detention camps located throughout the West that represented the first phase of the mass incarceration of 97,785 Californians of Japanese ancestry during World War II.

Pursuant to Executive Order 9066, thirteen makeshift detention facilities were constructed at various California racetracks, fairgrounds, and labor camps.

[10] These facilities were intended to confine Japanese Americans until more permanent internment camps could be built in isolated areas of the country, such as Manzanar and Tule Lake in California.

Beginning on March 30, 1942, all native-born Americans and long-time legal residents of Japanese ancestry living in California were ordered to surrender themselves for detention.

The marker is part of an expanded Fresno Assembly Center Memorial that lists in bronze the names of all who were incarcerated there with photos and personal commentaries by former Valley internees and their families.

[12] In 1948, the fair was reborn under the leadership of Tom Dodge and the State's 21st District Agricultural Association,[4] but the Army's use of the fairgrounds had left them in disrepair.

The visitors gate entrance on Chance Avenue was remodeled in 2004 due to $250,000 gift, the largest single contribution in the fair's history.

In the past decade, more than $4 million has been invested in the horse racing facility including a complete remodel of the paddock and addition of a luxury deck to the Brian I. Tatarian Grandstand and planting of 6,100 trees.

[20] Champion racehorse California Chrome, born and raised in the Central Valley, was celebrated at the fair on October 11, 2014, in a special presentation between the horse races.

The district's budget is managed by a CEO and their and staff, and is overseen by a nine-member Board appointed by the Governor's office.