Del Mar's fairgrounds turned a small beach town into a summer ritual

Del Mar is only a small seaside city, but it carries one of the biggest summer traditions in San Diego County. It is a village-sized place of roughly 2.2 square miles, incorporated in 1959 and sitting about 20 miles north of San Diego. On a normal day, it can feel like beach stairs, village shops, bluff views, and neighborhood streets.

Then the fairgrounds season changes the scale. The 22nd District Agricultural Association bought land at the mouth of the San Dieguito River in 1936 for the county fair. The first fair there drew more than 50,000 guests over 10 days, a large crowd for a place that still feels compact.

The racing story arrived the next year. The Del Mar Turf Club began using the racetrack for its live thoroughbred meet in 1937, with Bing Crosby greeting the first fan through the gate. A year later, the Seabiscuit-Ligaroti match race brought 20,000 people to the track and reached a national radio audience.

Del Mar can feel like two places at once. There is the small beach town, with the ocean and bluff paths close by. Then there is the fair and racing town, where the county comes for animals, food, music, exhibits, horses, and a long-standing summer scene.

For someone planning a visit, it is worth checking what is happening at the fairgrounds before judging traffic, parking, or crowds. For someone learning the place, the story is more interesting than “beach city.” Del Mar became memorable because the beach, the river mouth, the county fair, horse racing, and old Hollywood all met in the same small corner.