{"slug": "san-mateo-county-fair-opens-friday-with-concerts-drone-shows-duck-races", "title": "San Mateo County Fair opens Friday with concerts, drone shows, duck races", "summary": "The San Mateo County Fair opens Friday at the San Mateo County Event Center, featuring carnival rides, concerts, drone shows, and duck races. Headliners include Hinder, Gym Class Heroes, and Jay Sean, with free admission on select days for seniors and children. The fair runs through June 14, offering tech exhibits, eating contests, and animal attractions.", "body_md": "**Getting your**\n\n[Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...The San Mateo County Fair will open its annual run Friday with the requisite carnival rides, concerts, eating contests — plus tech-forward offerings like robot demos and drone shows.\n\nFair admission includes admission to all of the concerts. The music kicks off with headliner Hinder at 8 p.m. Friday, followed by Gym Class Heroes on Saturday night and, on Sunday, the KPOP Club Night featuring The Hype Boy From Jersey. After a two-day break, the fair will reopen with concerts by Queen Nation, ConFunkShun, Jay Sean and Hirie from June 10-13, then a Dia de la Feria on June 14.\n\nAmong the highlights:\n\n— Tech fun takes center stage for the first three days — Friday, Saturday and Sunday — with the Expo Hall experience called A-Maze-D offering interactive games, puzzles and mazes. The Retro Road Show in Fiesta Hall will display a collection of rare and historically significant computers and classic video game consoles. And on those three nights, a Drone Light Show will be presented at 9:15, after the Main Stage performance ends.\n\n— Ameca, a talking humanoid robot, and his/her/their handlers will present four demonstrations of human-robot possibilities. Friday only.\n\n— Redwood City’s Domini Hoskins Black History Museum will present more than 100 of its exhibits at the Event Pavilion at the fairgrounds.\n\n— Strolling entertainers will include balloon sculptor Dennis Forel, known as the voice of the fair, and Hillia Hula Hoop Extraordinaire.\n\n— Eating contests for kids and adults will feature ice cream, funnel cakes, barbecue pizza, watermelon and corn dogs.\n\nThroughout the fair’s run, youngsters can learn about animals and gardening at the Fair Farm, take selfies with butterflies, root for their favorite fowl in the Great American Duck Races. watch the All-Alaskan Pig Races and interact with animals at the Petting Zoo.\n\nThemed days offer free admission. On June 11, adults 62 and over will get in free, and a senior resource fair will be presented in the Fiesta Hall. On June 12, kids 12 and under will be admitted free.\n\nThe closing day of the fair, Sunday, June 14, will be celebrated as Dia de la Feria with the bands Los Tiranos, Los Mismos, Patrulla 81 and Orquesta San Vicente performing on the Main Stage, plus folklorico dance and other music acts on the Fiesta Stage.\n\n**Details:** For the first day only, Friday, fair hours will be 4 to 10 p.m. Longer hours, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., will be in effect the rest of the days. San Mateo County Event Center, 1346 Saratoga Drive, San Mateo; [sanmateocountyfair.com](https://sanmateocountyfair.com/)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/san-mateo-county-fair-opens-friday-with-concerts-drone-shows-duck-races", "canonical_source": "https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/04/san-mateo-county-fair-opens-friday-with-concerts-drone-shows-duck-races/", "published_at": "2026-06-04 14:30:10+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-04 15:01:58.557580+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["robotics", "artificial-intelligence"], "entities": ["San Mateo County Fair", "Hinder", "Gym Class Heroes", "KPOP Club Night", "Queen Nation", "ConFunkShun", "Jay Sean", "Hirie"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/san-mateo-county-fair-opens-friday-with-concerts-drone-shows-duck-races", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/san-mateo-county-fair-opens-friday-with-concerts-drone-shows-duck-races.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/san-mateo-county-fair-opens-friday-with-concerts-drone-shows-duck-races.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/san-mateo-county-fair-opens-friday-with-concerts-drone-shows-duck-races.jsonld"}}