Animals, rides and wine all come together at Salinas Valley Fair.

The colorful cowboy hats and boots, the sounds of instruments and voices of musicians, the earthy smell of hay, the taste of beef and the fur of rabbits, are some of the things that inebriate the senses at the kick-off day of the Salinas Valley Fair in King City on Thursday, May 14.

Many teenagers were enjoying their quesabirria or their shish kebab and children were slurping slushies or screaming on the small and big rides, while their parents were reveling in a glass of wine and together eventually viewing the livestock shows throughout the fairgrounds.

“We have kids’ day today, and I feel like the crowd was way bigger than normal, and it was awesome to see all the kids and the teachers come in,” says Lauren Hamilton, the CEO of the fair.

The fair has themes for each of the four days and began with “Kids Holaday.”

Many youth and adults were dressed in cowboy hats and boots on a sunny day including 70-year-old Manuel Mireles, who wore black pants and a suit with a cow imprint and a brown western hat. Mireles drove down from Greenfield to have a good time.

“I’ve been coming [to the fair] for 50 years since I moved here from Guanajuato, Mexico,” Mireles says. “My favorite food is the beef rib and I also plan to come on Saturday.”

Saturday is the livestock auctions where teenagers throughout the Salinas Valley get to sell the animals they have raised. But before that they get to present their animals at the livestock show.

Throughout the day high school students from Chualar, Greenfield, Gonzales, Salinas, King City and other cities exhibited their swine, sheep, goat and beef cattle as part of the 4-H and FFA programs, the two largest youth development organizations in the U.S. focused on agriculture, leadership and life skills.

Gali Flores, a junior from Gonzales High School, has been attending and presenting lambs at the fair for the last six years.

“No one else in my family has ever done [livestock showings] so I started a trend in my family and heard about 4-H when I was younger. I joined and chose lambs because they are cute and fluffy,” Flores says. “I’ve placed for the last few years in third place.”

Shannon Kessler, a candidate for California's 30 State Assembly District including the Monterey County coast, attended the opening day of the fair and says she is a big fan of the livestock exhibitions and auctions.

“I like seeing the 4-H and FFA kid’s showings because that really teaches them to be connected with agriculture and to understand it, and that as a candidate, I know that agriculture is essential to this community,” Kessler says.

Dennis Sanchez, who is running for California State Assembly District 29, which covers the Salinas Valley, also attended the event.

“I live in Salinas and I came here to meet a lot of the community,” Sanchez says. “King City is the middle and the heart of ag and so it's great to see people from all over the county come together.”

The fair consisted of other events including the grand tasting, a ticketed event where people could drink wine from many wineries throughout California.

“[Grand tasting] is a very casual event where people connect over wine and also eat,” says Brett Jones, a fair director in charge of the grand tasting experience. “I think some people still don’t know much about wine in general and so I want to help inform the community about our local wines too. The fair has something for everybody.”

The night also had music performances from The Edge Band, a five-member group that performs pop, and Casey Anglin, a country singer from Paso Robles.

Hamilton expects about 45,000 attendees in total throughout all four days of the fair weekend.

“In 2018 and 2019, our entrance was about 30,000 to 35,000 people so we've definitely increased over the years,” she says.