The Hometown Fair Runs Two Days. Valley Drive Closes for Three.

The 54th Manhattan Beach Hometown Fair is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, October 3 and 4. That adds up to sixteen hours of fair. On Valley Drive, the street closure starts at 9 a.m. Friday and runs until 11 p.m. Sunday. That's 62 hours, almost four times the fair's own hours.

In those 62 hours, two separate organizations use the same few streets, and on Saturday morning their schedules overlap. If you live near Valley Drive, timing matters more this weekend than the fair's lineup does. The details are below.

Sixteen Hours of Fair, Sixty-Two Hours of Closure

The fair is held at Live Oak Park, 1901 N. Valley Drive. The City describes it as running along Valley Drive from 15th to 21st Streets, and the Daily Breeze preview puts the north end at 22nd Street. The closure starts the day before the gates open and ends five hours after they close on Sunday. Here is the City's published schedule:

The no-parking window starts two hours before the road closes. If your car usually sits on Valley, it has to be moved by 7 a.m. Friday, which is a full day before the parade. The City's text doesn't give exact block limits for either closure. The Hometown Fair Street and Parking Lot Closure Map and the posted signs are the final word on which segments are affected.

Saturday Morning Belongs to a Different Event

The Manhattan Beach 10K is often thought of as part of the fair, but it isn't. A separate volunteer group, the Manhattan Beach 10K Race Committee, has organized it since October 1978. The race and the fair simply land on the same weekend every year.

The race starts at 7:30 a.m. Saturday from two points, 3rd Street and Valley Drive and 4th Street and Ardmore Avenue. The two groups merge at 15th Street. By then, 15th Street has already been closed for the fair since 4 a.m. So the fair's setup and the race's opening miles take place on the same pavement within hours of each other.

The official course directions take runners along Valley Drive, Ardmore Avenue, Manhattan Beach Boulevard, 15th Street, 1st Street, 3rd Street, 27th Street and Rosecrans Avenue. The route also heads toward Blanche Road, Bell Avenue, Manhattan Avenue, 36th Street and The Strand. Sepulveda Boulevard and Pacific Avenue aren't in the course directions.

The published closure times don't match, so plan around a range:

• City advisory: all streets on the race route close at 6:00 a.m. Saturday and reopen on a rolling basis, with downtown possibly closed until 10:00 a.m.
• Race committee's 2026 map: closures start at 6:30 a.m., streets reopen on a rolling basis until about 9:15 a.m., and downtown may stay closed until 10:00 a.m.
• City event listing: race-related traffic effects last until about 12:00 p.m.

Streets reopen behind the last participants at about a 20-minute-per-mile pace. The finish line closes about two hours after the start. That's why streets near the start, like Valley and Ardmore, should reopen well before the stretches near the finish.

If you have to drive somewhere during the race, the City's map gives two exits. South of Rosecrans, take Highland Avenue south to 15th Street, turn right onto Manhattan Avenue, then left onto Longfellow Avenue. North of Rosecrans, take Highland north to Grand Avenue in El Segundo, then turn right. Both start from Highland Avenue. Check the 2026 Road Closure and Exit Map against your own block before Saturday.

Dogs and strollers aren't allowed on the race course. Pets aren't allowed at the fair either. If your morning dog walk usually crosses Valley Drive, it will need a different route both days.

Before 11 a.m., Your Options Are on Foot

The City is promoting the MB Wave Rider as a way to skip fair parking. It's an on-demand ride booked in the Circuit app that goes anywhere in city limits and to the Metro K Line's Douglas Station. Rides cost $5 per person, or $2.50 for riders 55 and older. In its first three months, the average wait was 8 minutes and 28 seconds.

The hours matter more than the fare. Saturday service runs 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday service runs noon to 8 p.m. On Saturday, Wave Rider starts an hour after the fair opens and well after the parade. On Sunday, it starts two hours after the gates open. It's no help during the 10K, which ends before the first ride is available. The race has no shuttle of its own, and the race FAQ notes that the fair shuttle isn't connected to the 10K.

The fair shuttle uses the Kinecta Rosecrans parking lot at 1440 Rosecrans Avenue. The City's map marks the drop-off and pick-up points. ADA parking is in the Upper Civic Center lot, entered at 15th Street and Highland Avenue, and depends on available space and officer approval. None of the City or fair materials list shuttle hours or how often it runs.

This is one of the last fair weekends with Wave Rider at full strength. The City Council extended the service for seven more months. Starting December 1, it drops to Friday through Sunday only, 30 hours a week, with three vehicles instead of five. The $5 fare stays the same.

What's Different Inside the Fence This Year

The fair began in 1972 as an event organized by residents and became a California nonprofit on April 12, 1977. Board President Karen Tokashiki told The Beach Reporter that all proceeds go to schools and nonprofits. The fair's website expects to raise more than $100,000 for local groups each year. This year's footprint holds about 200 arts-and-crafts booths and nearly 30 food and drink booths. Changes for 2026:

1. Mahjong Open Play at the Joslyn Center is new this year. It runs Sunday at 1601 N. Valley Drive, with sign-ups on the fair's website. Players are eligible for a custom Manhattan Beach mahjong set, and winners get a custom mahjong T-shirt.
2. Kid Country has been revamped with more slime and glitter. The pony rides are gone after public feedback, but the petting zoo stays.
3. Battle of the Bands for amateur groups opens the Dietz Stage at 10 a.m. Sunday.
4. Civic Corner has information on local services and a chance to meet City staff. Community Place features South Bay nonprofits and political organizations.

Saturday starts with the opening parade, led by Boy and Girl Scout troops, with the Mira Costa High School Marching Band and drill teams. The Manhattan Beach Middle School Choir sings the national anthem. The Beer & Wine Garden is next to the Main Stage. On Saturday the Main Stage has JMD at 10:30 a.m., the Pedro Reis Band at 12:30 p.m., Moondogg and the Mystic Chiefs at 2:30 p.m., and Better Dayz at 4:30 p.m. Sunday ends with The Cliff Beach Band at 4:30 p.m. On the Dietz Stage, Sunday's last act is Rose Cleamons at 5:15 p.m., just before the gates close.

The gates close at 6 p.m. Sunday, but Valley Drive and 15th Street don't reopen until 11 p.m.

The Sign Expected Across From Joslyn

The fair takes over a strip that was a rail line long before it was a fairground. In May, the Leadership Manhattan Beach Class of 2026 held a ribbon cutting on Valley Drive, across from the Joslyn Center, for "Iron Rails to Green Trails." The project is a public sign telling the history of Veterans Parkway: its years as part of the Santa Fe rail line, the running boom of the 1980s, and its conversion to the Greenbelt.

At that ceremony, a cardboard stand-in held the spot. Project lead Scott Anderson said the permanent steel sign was still being made and would go in that summer. We couldn't find any public confirmation that it has been installed. Anderson told the Daily Breeze he hadn't known the strip existed when he moved to town, and that "I might be here more than I am on the sand." If the sign is up, the Mahjong Open Play at the Joslyn Center puts Sunday's newest fair event right across the street from it.

Big neighborhood events change things that rarely show up in a listing, like street access, parking and how a block works for a whole weekend. At Jen Caskey Group, we track details like these for the Tree Section year-round. If you're curious what your home on these streets is worth today, start with a home valuation from us. We base it on the same block-by-block knowledge.