The pear fair is held in Courtland, CA alongside the Delta. Courtland is a small town, feels like everyone knows everyone there. The fair is held annually and always has pear inspired food, art and drinks. Each year I've attended it seems to expand and include more vendors, and or history of the area and the pear fair itself. There's always a live band, baked good and pear-aholic beverages. There's a fee for parking (parking is in the grass) but admission to the fair is free. read more

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This was an impressive community event and our first time attending out in Courtland! Loads of great food trucks, drinks, and good music! The Wolf Jett performance was our favorite, but Hip Service also rocked the stage with some great hits and the mariachi band was truly a sight to behold. bravo! I'd love to have seen some hay bales and a couple pop ups for shade for parents to sit in shade near the bounce houses. But there were ample bounce houses and water slides which were a hit for the kids. Additionally, The petting zoo was wonderful for littles. My son loved seeing the young cow, sheep, and llama. The Pear Pie from the local Elementary School stand was so delicious!! We look forward to coming back next year!! Great Job, Courtland! We prefer this over the massive State Fair crowds! read more

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This year 2023 the Pear fair was going strong despite the 20 dollar charge for parking. It's a sticker shock for many but they don't charge for admission to enter. Small price to pay for a fun small town fair. If you're in a wheelchair or disabled it's very difficult for the handicapped to get to the fair bc of the very lumpy grassy parking area. That's an understatement too. We sympathize. It was a hot 95 degree day the last Sunday in Courtland. That's not bad bc it could be 100 plus degrees easily. We came to enjoy the live music as we heard Rachelle Steele play. Also lively and energetic Hip Service band got many up dancing and grooving. There were crafters tents & many items for sale by the Courtland high school auditorium which was nice to keep cool from the heat. We tried our best to stay in there & in the shady areas of the event. If you watch the bands play plan on sitting on the prickly haystacks! Ouchie! Seriously! We lucked out with the extra folding chairs used by the fair employees! Sorry but no pics as my wife did enjoy their well designed bright green & blue psychedelic pear fair tshirts! We enjoyed the delicious birria tacos! Unfortunately my wife waited until 430 PM to purchase some pear ice cream. This fair technically ends at 6 PM. So Mel's ice cream tent was long gone by then! Her bad! Lol By then we decided to hit the road home. So close to Elk Grove. Many times we are traveling away so we don't always attend every year. But it's small town fun. We observed the small cute homes across the street having their own party going! Woohoo! Lucky them & so conveniently close! Gotta love that! read more

Pear Fair - Pear Fair collage! - Festivals Near Me - Courtland, California

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What can you say about the Pear Fair! I've been coming to this festival since I was a little girl. It's on the smaller side for sure but still provides live music, awesome food selection, an amazing community and the nostalgia that is Courtland. Having family born and raised here it's a gem for us. Only downfall this year was not getting fresh corn on the cob! But the customer service was awesome, the vibe of the fair is what you should expect of a small town festival and the atmosphere was laid back, relaxing and what I love most about going. Do yourself a favor and stop by next year. It's worth it...maybe not an all day excursion but still worth supporting a local community! read more

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This is my first attendance of the Pear Festival at Courtland, understanding this venue had a 3 year hiatus due to the pandemic. Very festive and could use more concession stands. Food, beer, wine and great band performance. The only quirk for me was when I was driving on 160 I didn't see the parking signs. Had to do a U-turn, parked at a convenience store nearby to ask where it it. Found it finally, cost was $20 to park, but considering the proceeds where going to the fire department and the entrance to the event was free, it was a fair deal. Another quirk was there was only one type of pear being sold- Bartlett, so that wasn't too interesting because I do have a tree at home. Hopefully they would sell other types of pears in the future even if they have to "import" it from elsewhere read more

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Nice small town event! Whoever thought of the exit process of having a 15 minute drive of close to a mile through loose dirt to leave the event wasn't thinking! You charge a reasonable $20 to park and now I have to have a $35 car wash to have my car cleaned from leaving. Not Good! read more

Will have heart attack for pears! Well that's what almost happened to me while I carried a 20 pound sack of pears back to my car parked in the field, in hot weather.... while juggling two pies in my other hand. This was my first time to the Annual Pear Fair. Overall they offered a good variety of vendors and it was easy to find and get to. Parking this year is still $10, free admission. Parade started at 1pm. There was a large area for kids and a large variety of water inflatables and pony rides! I walked out with two pear pies, one from Walnut Grove PTA and the other from another PTA located two booths down, I can't recall the name of. Each were $14 each and with the long line you'd think it was the food line during the depression era. I had to get both to compare. Both tasted great with only a slight variation where the forgotten PTA name version had more cinnamon spices, but it could have easily been attributed to the over zealous handling of the spices by the baker alone and not necessarily the recipe. It neither contributed to nor took away from the pie that much for me to distinguish between the two, especially with both being the same price. The 20 pound sack of pears costed me $20 and they were also selling 5 pounds for $5, green, red pears or mixed. I'm giving 4 stars instead of 5 because the parking fee is steep. $5 would be more reasonable. I understand in reading other reviews that it goes towards scholarships and admission is free, but i still think $5 is more acceptable considering vendor prices are as high as the state fair. This is a local event and it should be cheaper overall. When you exit, you have to travel about a half mile of dusty road. Believe me it was a complete dust bowl stirring everywhere. It got into every crevice of my vehicle. Even the freeway driving afterward couldn't blow it all away. Prepare to wash your car afterwards! Can they configure a different exit point next year or pave the road with hay/asphalt? read more

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A fun Courtland community celebration open to all, this fair is free admission with lots of pear and non-pear food & craft vendors. Families welcome, kids play area, adult beverages, live music, eating contests, & more. Parking $10 cash. read more

LOVED the pear fair. A good friend of mine is actually apart of the Pear Fair committee and I had previously never heard of it until she mentioned that I should stop by. Pear Fair is held in Courtland (about 30 minutes away from Sacramento). I think it's such a hidden treasure and I hope to come regularly every year. Great thing about Pear Fair is that it's not the size of the State Fair...small and community oriented. People really invest a lot of time and effort into it! Lots of booths, attractions, different types of food and things to buy! My favorites: 1. Pear bread - YUM. Reminds me of banana bread just pear bread. $5 for small loaf to help benefit fire fighters! 2. Pear fries - OH WHY YES PLEASE! I didn't order this but had a small tasting! Goodness gracious 3. Pear Martinis - how sweet it is! 4. Pears by the bag - $5. GREAT price and a good amount of pears in the bag to take home! 5. Pear ice cream - simply delicious I wish they advertised it more in Sacramento, I'm sure a lot of granola crunchers would love to come to this event! Great music! Live bands that played cover songs all day long. Lots of people sitting to watch the band but not enough people dancing around! Maybe because it was hot? read more

Great little fair. The pear pie, deep fried pear, and pear chicken sausage was delicious. The pear cider was more of a pass, It wasn't really sweet nor sour; it was just meh. I can see coming back here when in the area. The little museum was also pretty neat and they had posters & calendars available for purchase. The rest of the shops were, well the typical mismatch of random stands you'd expect at any small or large fair. Sadly we missed all the opening festivities and the parade. read more

We went yesterday for the Annual Pear Fair. I was told in a thread that this is a local's only event, and that's why there are no pear treats. I refute that claim, as this event was recently touted by Huell Howser and has a website, even ads in local papers outside of Hood and Courtland, no less. I figured we needed to attend because the Crawdad Festival went so horribly badly. But apPEARantly, according to the previous reviews for this fair, the pear fair has a long history of running out of pear related foods. That goes against the grain of all celebrations centered around a specific food: let me put it bluntly, they don't run out of garlic in Gilroy. I think this could be highly improved by keeping true to the theme: pear goodies, vendors who work in high-volume pear goodies, etc. There is no excuse for running out of things pear. They were out by 11 AM, and this fair runs from 9 AM to 6 PM. When you're done by 11 AM, you have no reason to exist. Except to give the locals something to do. And since their streets were non-navigable during the fair, you'd think a smart local would have high-tailed it to Ryde for brunch followed by a regular trip to Cost-Co instead of sticking around town. In any event, it's cheap to attend, and the drive is very nice down Freeport. Parking was plentiful. The locals running the event, while woefully underprePEARed, were very friendly. Ways I'd suggest to improve (and I have not been back to this since 2009): -again, pear goods. Make them. Plentiful and robust amounts to last at least until after lunch. Strudel would have been awesome. - sunblock sails strewn between buildings to break the heat - require pear-related goods to be sold by the folks who are vending. For example, shouldn't LA PERITA, the folks selling seedlings and succulents, be selling a few pear seedlings if not food from their club (named Little Pear in Espanol??) That would make sense to me, but no. ---received a PM from someone who said pear seedlings take a long time to propagate and that it's not a restaurant but a club. Okay then. It was still weird at a PEAR FESTIVAL to be given options to buy aloe vera. But I love the idea of a club of gardeners who produce little seedlings. I hope they do more events than the terrible pear fair. -if you're going to have a Kid Central, that's awesome, but put some shade over it. No one in their right mind is going to let their kids jumpolene on anything hotter than 100+ degrees without shade. -tell the sno cone folks to get some damn pear syrup. Jeez. I kept reminding myself it was a "pear fair" not a "pear festival", and that got me through. I bought my bag o'pears from Maggie's Farm on the way out, and I'm making pear strudel at home from a recipe online. read more

Sweet and charming local food festival plus a cool drive along the Delta. A nice Sunday family activity. The festival was about what I expected size-wise. Parking was ample -- $10. Activities for young kids included bouncy obstacle courses/slides and water jumpy/slides -- for a $5 wristband. Our son especially liked the motorized go carts -- $3 per ride. They had an old tractor for the kids to climb and there was a nice clown who made balloon animals. Our kids were too young to go on the rock climbing wall or mechanical bull. I'm a big fan of local history so I personally enjoyed the exhibit hall with historic pictures and a book of old crate labels. We were surprised to see one freaky label for Swastika Pears! You can see a copy of it here: http://www.thelabelman.com/product_info.php?products_id=3620 Sieg Heil, der Nazi fruit! I was surprised at the lack of vendors selling old crate labels or other pear related crafts. The arts and crafts vendors overall were a huge disappointment. Hardly any locally crafted items and none specific to pears. There were more food vendors than I expected. Usual food fare at typical inflated prices included corn dogs, teriyaki bowls, kabobs, hot meat sandwiches, roasted corn, burritos and some unexpected items such as lumpia. With kids in tow, the beer, wine, pear-mosas, and pear-tinis were sadly not an option, though I'm sure I would have enjoyed that aspect of the fair. I didn't get to see much of the cool classic car exhibit and was also not able to attend the Mulvaney's cooking demo. Surprisingly absent were individual ripe fresh pears to eat; the closest thing was a five pound bag unripened pears. There were pies, pear bread, and other pantry items. We would have loved to have seen more fresh pear related food items. The Pear-ade (parade) was sweet and homey, as was the Pear Fair Grand Marshall donning a pear suit. Reminded me of growing up in a small town (my hometown had a Cherry Festival). We'll go again next year. read more

Yesterday I attended this festival for the first time. It was by far one of the smaller festivals I've attended which is no surprise since Courtland is a small town. The parking lot was in a bumpy grassy area full of gopher/mole holes that were patched up with loose dirt. Watch your step! Admission was free, which was nice! I was disappointed to discover that more than half of the pear themed items they advertised on the flier were no where to be found. On top of that, everything was grossly over priced (yet everything was pearrific - *knee slapper). This can only be justified if they were raising money for a club. * $12 whole pear pie * $4 a teeny tiny loaf of pear bread * $4 pear ice cream * $4 pear-mosa * $4 absolut pear lemonade I saw pear jam, pear chutney, pear vinegar and pear soap at the various merchandise booths. What really sold me was Singing Pig's Pumpkin Butter spread ... can you say TO DIE FOR!? Luckily I was able to land a picture with the fair's grand marshall (lady in the peach costume) and she gave me a kazoo! I also got some pear fair flair! Too bad I didn't see the pear sausage, peartini, pear strudel, pear muffin, pear salad ... etc. Crazy that this is their 36th pear fair and yet the variety of food and merchandise vendors were extremely limited. We didn't stay long enough for the parade or the pie eating contests because there weren't enough pear themed items for us to try. Plus the band was not entertaining enough for me to stay, I chose to block them from my ears. read more

Courtland does it right! This lovely local fair shows off this cute town of 600. $10 parking fee is all it costs to attend. Lots of vendors selling art, jewelry etc. The usual food folks with some pear twists. A historic exhibit of delta farming and pear history. Live music, lots of stuff for kids to do and classic cars too. Take Freeport Blvd through the delta to get there and then go Hood Franklin Road for a quick trip back. A very enjoyable way to spend a few afternoon hours. read more

The Courtland Pear Fair is yet another California Ag festival, but this one much more family friendly and convenient than some others. We got there about 1030 am and it was already about 90 degrees. Parking was $10 and admission was free. We pulled off hwy 160 and drove down the street to the parking field, which is huge. When we got there it was already pretty busy and we got some of the last of the Pear Pie, and they were already out of the pear strudel. One stand was already out of ALL pear-based pastries. We had some fair type food, and heard some typical fair type cover bands. We didn't stick around for the parade since it was already hot. One huge difference we noticed from the typical food fair like Stockton Asparagus, and Gilroy was the crowd was older with zero drama. I won't take my kid to Stockton, nevertheless the Asparagus festival since the crowd is pretty dense, hot and sketchy. Like get in a fight with a drunk biker bitch sketchy. Courtland had a beer garden but it was full of older folks trying pear cider or pear mojitos. For me this was like trip a trip to grandma and grandpa's which is fine with me since I was just there to take my kid out for a quick trip and have some pear pie. Bottom line: Cool fair, good standard fair food, and chill atmoshpere in a small town. Get there early, and dress for the heat. read more

My family and I attended the 2008 Pear Fair. We had gotten a late start on our day and also took our time on the drive to Courtland, so we didn't actually pull into town until after 3pm. Courtland is a tiny little blink-and-you-might-miss-it type of town and as we pulled in, there were cars galore parked along the main roads. We didn't see any Pear Fair signs. I knew there was a $10 parking lot somewhere so we made a few detours onto side streets trying to figure out where it might be. We pulled back onto the main road and then saw a sign leading to the parking lot. The lot wasn't too crowded by the time we arrived and we scored a spot quite close to the festivities. First off, we meandered through the vendors' area, browsed a bit, and then continued around to the food and entertainment areas. We missed all the pear festivities (parade, contests) but saw the lady in the pear costume (woohoo!) and listened to a cover band. We enjoyed looking at all the historic pictures in the exhibit hall. Standard food-wise, there was more variety than I expected... I had the Lockeford Sausage Sandwich with sauerkraut and onions -- it was giant and absolutely scrumptious and for only $5, such a deal! I had almost gotten a corn dog (I know...) so I'm glad I changed my mind. My husband had a teriyaki chicken stir fry bowl-- he said he had to pick around some fat, etc. but other than that it was good. My daughter is 14 now and we didn't wander through the kid play area so I can't comment on it, but we did see the little train circling the town-- pretty cute :) Overall, we had a nice time at the Pear Fair. The weather couldn't have been better, with the Delta Breeze in full force. Biggest disappointment was the lack of pear items overall, though-- and especially the lack of pear desserts. I swear we wandered around in circles looking for pear desserts and could only find pear relish, pear jam, pear chutney, and 5 lb. bags of pears at one table. I was really looking forward to some having delicious pear treats and I have to admit, it was a main reason why I wanted to hit up the Pear Fair, so I was (and still am!) bummed that we missed out. Even the pear ice cream was sold out. Per Nette O's review, she couldn't find any baked goods either and she left before the parade (which started at 1pm), so... sounds like there weren't many treats available to begin with... too bad :( 1 star off my review due to lack of pear treats. read more

I love fairs, especially ag fairs, but am incresingly disappointed with the state fair, which I've been going to every year for the past 18. I had a GREAT time at this one, though. Free admission & lower prices than most fairs = great deal. And, as I can't eat deep fried things, I was on the lookout for healthier choices and found plenty - pears, pear salsa and chips, corn on the cob, chicken skewers, salmon, etc. - I had a fun time, and it was totally unpretentious and friendly and it looked like everyone from Cortland and up and down the river showed up to have a fun time. Maybe more pear-themed items would be nice ... jams and jellies, fruit salads, grilled pears, all sorts of interesting stuff. Ceviche with pear! maybe have restaurants from all over set up a stall for a pear cook-off? I'll go back in the future! read more

Brad is a little off on his comments and his one star rating. Folks, keep in mind this is a small town fair, not the freaking STATE fair. Further (and not to make this a point/counter point review) I have a feeling he got there early, missed most of the real show (parade, pie eating contests, circus, etc.). As for hamburgers? I don't even think there were hamburgers there (not that I saw). As for the car show - 15 cars? I asked the guy running it how many were there...at that time there were 75 (awards for best of show were at 3:00 p.m.). The '65 GTO won, if I can remember correctly. So Brad, are you sure you didn't visit Courtland on Saturday, the day before the fair? Or was it some other Pear Fair? I do know that there were dozens and dozens of pear food items. Found out that Gunthers in Sacramento made the spectacular pear ice cream (new recipe this year) and the ribs from Husicks were really good (they have a deli in Clarksburg that I will be visiting). Two Rivers Pear Cider was even flowing at one of the local parties I was lucky enough to stop by for. This is a nice, simple, family event....where you don't have to watch and worry about the kids as you enjoy the day. read more

Pear fair is a great time to be had by all. They have something for all ages. The food is great and the community members who come together to put this event on are even better. It is normally warmer weather due to it being at the end of July, but there is shade everywhere. The only down fall is that the kids area is pretty much nothing but jump houses and the company who runs it charges quite a bit for tickets. read more

Hope to see you at the Pear Fair this weekend, July 26, 2009. The fair is always the last Sunday in July - mark your calendars. Admission is free, and parking is $10 and benefits the Courtland Fire Dept., education scholarships, etc. So there is stuff to do for all ages. For those 21 and over there is a beer garden featuring Coors products, pear cider, pear vodka, pear mimosas and a separate wine booth pouring local wines from Ehrhardt Estates. Don't forget about the parade at 1:00 p.m. and the crowning of the Pear Fair Queen. Some of the other fun things to do and see at the fair: 5 & 10 mile fun run through the pear orchards, classic car show, live music, arts & crafts vendors, cooking demonstrations, Historic pear displays, and much more. My favorite part of the pear fair is the pear food and goodies. Come check it out. You will be glad you did. read more

Always fun to be had at a small town fair! The beverages have expanded over the years and the pancake breakfast is the best way to kick off the day! If you haven't made it yet, join in next year! Always the last weekend of July! read more

What a tragedy this year's pair fair was to us. I understand the $10.00 parking. The parking fees go back to the community for various things. But....... My wife and I ave been going to this fair for a long time. We did not go last year because I had back surgery. This year was horrible. Parking with a disabled person is a challenge. No way the shuttle can help anybody who has a wheelchair or walker, so that person suffers just getting to the activities. This year there were food trucks taking up at least two spaces each instead of the regular food vendors. Stupid $8.00 to $10.00 hot dogs ? Really ? And for buying the pears themselves, they are all pre-bagged for you and only one location to get pears. The pears were small and like a rock. As they ripen, they get rotten. We got rid of almost all of the pears. We ate maybe 3 pears out of the whole $10.00 bag. The vendor that was bagging the peas even told us they picked early this year and they were small. They were all pre-bagged, and you get about 15 to 20 very small pears per bag..... $10.00 per bag, that sucked. Always loved to building that has the courtland history in pictures. The band they had when the fair opened was great. Can't remember what the name of the band, but they played a variety of music. Thank GOD for Lockford Sausage Company. They had the longest lines of all the vendors. I have serious doubts about going next year. The vendors that did not served food was hit and miss. So the only 3 things worth going to this year was Lockford sausage, history in pictures, the band that played first after the fair opened. read more

After I went to the Garlic Festival on Saturday I needed a pick-me-up! The Pear Fair did it! There was a petting zoo area with chickens, ducks, geese, a miniature horse, goats, a baby cow, little sheep and bunnies! Not to mention this awesome water balloon gun game. I SOAKED my niece and husband!!! And then because my side worked a lot better than their side, we got to switch and she got me right in the face! haha. It was so much fun. Then we walked around and the alcohol lovers in my family made it their mini quest to find the pear-tinis and such. They did, in a matter of minutes. Too strong for me but I'm a weakling. I opted for some Xochilmoco's Veggie Nachos with Guac. Pretty yummy, I didn't like that they put nacho cheese and regular cheese, I would have preferred just regular cheese. I wanted to get something pear and sweet but somehow we just kept putting it off until we were ready to leave. One of the most interesting and fun things that we saw was the Bull Ride! My niece did really good on it! A little Debra Winger in the making! The merchants were a little lackluster but they weren't in your face so I didn't mind, there was enough going on that you didn't need to shop. I liked that there was a schedule to things and always something to entertain. Even the kids were busy so it wasn't just a bunch of rotten, bored scoundrels making noise and bumping into people! All in all I'd say Courtland has the whole fair business down. Especially with the whole kid area. My niece must have gone on one of the inflatable "rock" climbing/slide things like 8 times! Pretty much everyone there was really super nice and generous and I went home with 10 pounds of pears. I was a happy camper that Sunday! Only 2 cons that I felt could be remedied: -the garlic fries were slimey and mushy... Idk, maybe they made them out of pears instead of potatoes. haha jk. -The people running the petting zoo were not the most friendly people and I didn't like the way they handled the animals. One of them was carrying the goose by the wings and chucked it hard into the pen so that it hit it's chin on the way in. Made me and my niece chringe. She is awesome at being blunt so she asked them why they were being so mean to the animals and that the goose got hurt when he threw her in and he gave kind of a snear and told her it was the "safe way to do it". And the baby cow, although I was really happy to see a cow (I love their faces), looked weak and unhappy. I took off one of the stars because of these people. I felt like they could have cared more about their animals, they seemed to treat them more like a job than living creatures. I hate to see that. read more

My family and I usually go every year since my grandparents grew up in the area. It's free and it has a great family/small town feel. Living in southern California I miss the small town living and its always great to visit Courtland. Also love the food and vendors. read more

First of all, I am a little bitter about losing my camera (blue casio exilim ) and no one returning it and how there was not a proper lost and found for me to check if someone did. So I had to go all over the fair to look for one. Anyways, I tried to enjoy the rest of my day there... I tried the pear bread which was fairly good for $5 ; also the pear sausage which really didn't taste any different from regular sausage. The pear sausage was $7 for a very small piece. Mostly everything was overpriced. There were pears all over the ground which was such a waste!! It would've been nice to give a pear to each person who attended the festival. There were only a few things to do like watch a band perform or look at the few cars at the car show. I will come back next year though and I hope that they will improve it. read more

Pear Fair has been a family tradition my entire life! As a 5th generation Delta Native, I couldn't imagine summer here without the Pear Fair. To any out of town visitors, I assure you the great time & fun of a small town fair is worth a little dust on your car! Just prepare to wash the following weekend. Don't wash your car before coming! This is an annual event thrown by volunteers who work very hard for your enjoyment. The fee collected for parking goes right back into the community. This is a great event for children, vendors, music lovers and foodies. Always the last Sunday in July! read more

Avoid the Pear Fair I first learned about this event on Huell Howser's show California's Gold and it looked like a real gem and we had very high expectations that this would be a grand sunday afternoon first annual event for our family. Wrong. I was very disappointed, the 15 minutes it took to walk around was boring, and there were very little pear theme items. Car show was max 15 cars, museum consisted of a few pruning shears and dozens of b&w photos of the town. The fair was basically a bad food venue of greasy burgers and dogs. I found 1 pear pie vendor and the over priced pear drinks. I will not go back and truthfully neither should anyone else. read more

I love that part of the Delta and had recently watched a show covering the Pear Fair (I think it was Huell Howser's California show). It looked like a great little fair. It's a nice drive to Courtand. We went early - everyone was so friendly - parking was bumpy (in a field) but the stroller made it through. We were kind of disappointed when we saw all of the trappings of a junky fair (carnie-type amusements, hawkers selling "it slices, it dices" kind of stuff, and fried junk). I guess I was thinking it would be more old-fashioned with things like LOTS OF PEARS! How about bobbing for pears, more pear-themed merchandise, Pear Fare, everything pear! I'm sure they are getting money from the vendors there but it was so swap-meet-esque that we just bought our pear bread from the Lions Club (the famous pear bread) and left. Our son (5 yrs) was even asking where all of the pear "stuff" was. We got back in the car before our 4 month old got too hot. The line was long for the breakfast (and I wanted to try that pear sausage!) My advice to those hard working coordinators/volunteers (and I know how much work it is to put together the logistics of such an event): Charge more for parking (it's for a good cause) and get rid of the junk. Make it more traditional and bring out more of the local flavor. Did I mention we were insulted by the "Win a Trip to Hawaii" guy when we took a piece of candy for our boy? C'mon!! Hope it's better next time - we'll try again next year. read more

We had been telling everyone in Rio Vista about Pear Fair and there were two articles in our local magazine and newspaper, so our friends had high expectations. IT WAS ALL FABULOUS!! I know it's a lot of work and I'm sure that you never have enough help and wonder how it will all come together. But the Pear Fair is a shining example of what the Delta towns are about and I hope it continues for many years to come. Thank you for an amazing Pear Fair -Paula and Don read more

I purchased a ring from one of the vendors at the Pear Fair.. Her name is Gladys Payta. No receipt was given to me since she used an I-Pad to make the transaction. When I asked for a Business Card, she said she didn't have any. I know, "red flag" right?? Well, now I'm stuck with a ring that is defective and unable to track down this vendor to ask for a replacement or a refund of my money which I put on my Visa card. I have contacted the Visa company and they are not able to find any trace of this vendor. Can you help as I am totally frustrated and disappointed that this person was able to display merchandise for sale that is not acceptable and no way to contact her. E. Dahl read more

**** LOST CAMERA AT THE PEAR FAIR ON 7/29/12 **** Light blue Canon Power Shot Digital Point and Shoot camera. There are photos on there of our 11 month old son taking his first pony ride and lots of other miscellaneous photos of an 11 month old boy with dark hair, blue eyes and dimples. Some of the pictures are in color and some are in black and white. If found please email jamesandhilary@comcast.net. Other than losing our camera, the pear fair was fun. It was our first time going. The drinks were cheap, the food was good and there were fun activities for kids such as a puppet show, pony rides, rock climbing wall and a zip line. We bought a pear pie, which we have not tried yet, but it looks good and everybody said they would sell out quick. read more

The pears are good and fairly priced. We got 2 bags of pears, a pie and a pear pastry for about $35. We didn't pay the ridiculous $10 parking which everyone else doesn't seem to have a problem with. $10 to park in a field? Why? Are you trying to make money off of parking? How about free parking if you buy some pears or something... They don't charge for parking in a field up in Apple Hill. I brought my 4X4 and parked in a crazy spot nobody else could for FREE. The food was good and I will go back but will never pay to park in Courtland. read more

Happened to be passing near Courtland on the one day of the year that the Pear Fair is held (last Sunday of July). This isn't a big event - it's a local event - just to set your expectations! It is held on what appears to be a large school's grounds. Like another poster said, it's not the state fair by any means. But by my estimation, it was pretty big for a single city's event. And the specific and locally-relevant theme (pears, of course) made it far more interesting than an urban street fair. It started out great - lots of food vendors, 75% of whom had pear-oriented items as one would hope: pear pie, pear bread, pear salsa, pear strudel, pear ice cream, caramel-dipped pears, and many pear-infused alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. And unlike posters from previous years, as of 1pm (about the time I left), I didn't see them running out of any pear food items. There were also many "normal" arts-and-crafts vendors, as well, partitioned off separately from the food area. (And yay - none of those pretentious vendors you run into at urban street fairs.) And if you have kids, the kiddie activity area looked fun - lots of kid-oriented rides. But, like I said, it started out great, but toward the end of my visit to the Pear Fair I was wondering if it was worth it: - No quality control of vendors. Anyone who says "I can do tricks with pears" can set up a booth. Example: Right before leaving, I wanted a caramel pear, so I went to the caramel pear guy. He delivered it in a paper dish, a dish to which the caramel adhered better than to the pear. Result: After a bit of an attempt to remove the caramel-coated pear from the plate, the entire caramel wrapping detached from the pear. What a waste. Although if you like to pay several dollars for the entertainment of watching a friend do battle with a caramel pear, only to end up with a naked pear on a stick and an inedible caramel gooey mass stuck to a paper plate, then you should DEFINITELY buy one of these for your friend. I realize that the planners of the Pear Fair did not make the food, but some basic quality control of vendors would go a long way to gaining repeat patrons. - BEWARE If you live to the SOUTH! The only exit from the parking lot is back to the main road, NORTH of the entrance to the parking lot. Result: You have to wait 20-30 more minutes with the backed-up INCOMING traffic just to be on your way. There's no "shortcut around the block" - this town doesn't have any other north-south roads long enough to get you around the incoming traffic. I suppose you could take the north route out to I-5, but then you would miss the beautiful drive along the levees of the delta canals/rivers. isn't that kind of the point of spending a day in the delta? I suppose if you knew about this exit problem in advance, you would fiddle with your GPS in advance and find a (somewhat time-saving, very circuitous, but somewhat scenic) backroad route to get you on your way. But if you find yourself stuck in the southbound traffic before you do such GPS-fiddling, you'll likely not recoup much time or frustration. (PEAR FAIR PLANNERS: if you're reading this, I'm a reasonable guy, so I would make the 100-mile trip back again from the Bay Area-Peninsula. But after that lack-of-traffic-planning, most people I know would not. If not some traffic planning, perhaps some basic signage to get people on their southbound way?) Since I actually enjoyed most of my time there (even if my excitement was wiped out by the end), ...and since this is an annual fund-raising event, ...and I know have the knowledge to avoid the caramel pear guy and pre-plan my route home next year, ... I guess I can give this a few stars. read more

This is a smallish fair, but right in the middle of charming Courtland. I've attended the last two years, as a runner in the fun run (more later), but I also attended numerous times during the 1980's as a nino in tow w/Mom and Dad. Back then, there was no tent for the entertainment, so you had to tough it out in the heat for the traditional mariachi band who went on at the end of the day. The wait was intolerable, but what did I know as a 10 year old brat who only wanted to listen to Duran Duran. These days, the fair has a giant tent on the grass with plenty of seating, on bails of hay, so you can comfortably wait for Mariachi Los Gallos while indulging in deep fried human cholesterol and pear cider. There is also some entertainment for kids, mostly jumphouses and a choo-choo train that comes perilously close to tipping over and running into cars, as it rides on the surface streets around the fair. The retail area includes your standard issue Free-Mumia-hippie-chick outfitters, puffin sculptures atop birdshit-stained logs, paintings by a woman with Roseanne Rosannaddana hair, homemade soaps, and all window ornaments your QVC-shopping heart could ever desire. So onto the "fun run". Please keep that in mind if you are an anal retentive runner. It is organized by and for the benefit of their local cross country team. Last year we showed up and found out, oh sorry, no timing chips as advertised. I grinned and beared it, and was rewarded with a beautiful run on the farm roads. This year we got our chips (yay!), although the show seemed to be run by an overbearing woman with a bit of an alpha complex. Just glad I wasn't a volunteer. Most of the route is on farm roads, with just a couple hundred yards of (pot-hole riddled) grass and hay. Plenty of aid stations with water and Gatorade. The farms don't shut down for anyone, so you may have to run around some equipment or move to the side to allow trucks. If you are slow like me, you also get to suffer the indiginity of having racers who have already finished drive past you on their way home. So, like I said, it's a "fun run". Unless you are in an elite running club with 2% body fat, don't anticipate any PR's. If you want to go old skool, head over to the all you can eat pancake breakfast at the nearby Masonic Hall. You get 2 pancakes, a sausage link, a fruit cup, and a shot of coffee, OJ and milk, all served to you by people who are no less than 80 years old. Then get back in line for more, enjoy the ambience, admire the toupees, and catch a final glimpse of a generation who are leaving us far too soon. read more

Well folks, this is the best year ever....the parade was awesome! I think the real issue is that pear harvest is still in full swing when this event is going-so to find a pear that is ripe and ready to eat is a far reach as they are just coming off the tree-and you know they are picked green and shipped as not to bruise. I wish to see far more pear items, and find that they last the entire rest of the day-Rock on Courtland, glad to see an old fashioned fair- read more