The Annual Silverado Country Fair and Folk Festival is an opportunity to experience what the Old West was like in the Santa Ana Mountains and have a great time. It is gonna’ be the best family event of the season and will explore the wonders of the area’s Old West rustic culture, great live music, tasty food, handmade arts and crafts, 1800’s period activities, children’s pumpkin patch, Steampunk costume contest, games and silly ‘ole timey’ contests, all nestled under the Oak trees below Orange County’s famous Saddleback Mountain.
The event kicks off at 9:00 am Saturday morning with the annual “Unparade” led by the notorious wagon driven Silverado Outlaws, Western horseback riders, Acjachemen (Juaneno) tribe, scouts, dancers and classic cars will be paradin’ past homes and businesses along Silverado Canyon Road to the “fairgrounds.” Don’t miss the live action robbery and gunfight at the Silverado Café and Canyon Market area! (Don’t worry kids…the Outlaws promise to give back what they steal!) The UnParade Grand Marshalls will be TBA. Give ’em a wave as they pass the market and country store, will ya?
Down at the “fairgrounds” the Silverado Country Fair opens at 10:00 am with live music, dancing, and gun slinging fun! Local art & craft merchants will be showing off their goods and families can experience making crafts from the 1800’s with Mountain Man Joel Robinson & family dressed in period garb. Spurs & Satin WILD WEST Re-enactors will be shootin’ up the joint and performing silly skits while the resident Blacksmith demonstrates ‘hot off the iron’ old timey works. Hungry visitors will love wholesome country cooking served up fresh all weekend.
Country, Western, Bluegrass, Folk & Blues bands will entertain throughout the weekend. Sunday’s fair concludes with a jam session from Road Kill Kings, Hempstring Orchestra and Cubensis, an Orange County Grateful Dead cover band.
What the heck is the Silverado Country Fair?
Just miles from the city life of Orange County, lies the town of Silverado Canyon. Silverado Canyon is the largest inhabited canyon in the Santa Ana Mountain range with less than 1,500 residents.
In 1969 rainstorms flooded Silverado and Modjeska canyons and many homes were washed away and the bridge collapsed turning canyon communities into islands. Six people were killed when the Silverado Fire Station was hit by mudslides. The Silverado Country Fair debuted in 1970 as a way to help bring the community together after disasters and fundraise for families.
The Silverado Country Fair & Folk Festival is held annually at the Silverado Community Center “Fairgrounds”, located just one mile into Silverado Canyon, and only minutes away from the cities of Villa Park, Orange, Anaheim Hills, North Tustin, Lake Forest, Rancho Santa Margarita and Irvine.
Proceeds benefit local Silverado organizations.
Silverado Country Fair Details
Date: October 12-13, 2024
Daytime Fair Hours: 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
Saturday Night Music Fest till’ 10:00 pm
Sunday’s fair 10 am till’ 10:00 pm
UnParade: 9 AM on Saturday
Location: Silverado Community Center
27641 Silverado Canyon Rd, Silverado, CA, 92676
Cost: Adult admission: $10/Kids 4-12 only $5, under 3 FREE!
Saturday Night Music Fest & Dance Party
No spirits Allowed, No pets allowed
For more information visit the Silverado County Fair Facebook Page.
Silverado Canyon History
Silverado Canyon was first inhabited by the Acjachemen (Juaneno) Native American Tribe, then later home of the 1800’s Bluelight silver boom and early settlers. The area’s first permanent resident was Francisco Soto, who built an adobe house and homesteaded in an area now known as Holtz Ranch in the 1860s.
The canyon’s first large wave of residents came to mine silver. That silver rush started when two men found a piece of blue-white quartz in 1877. In less than a year, 500 silver claims were staked. The town of Silverado was established in 1878 with a post office, hotels, stores and more than a handful of saloons.
Coal was also discovered in 1878. The Santa Clara Mining Co. was established and later the town of Carbondale was established separate from Silverado. The mining boom passed by 1883. By 1887, only a few farmers remained.
In 1889, the U.S. government surveyed the land for a forest reserve. In the 1920s and 1930s, people from Long Beach sought out the hot, clear weather of the canyons as a way to escape coastal fog.
Find more events in the Villa Park/Orange/Anaheim Hills area.