{"id":436479,"date":"2026-08-18T18:26:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T18:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/436479\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T18:26:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T18:26:17","slug":"corn-festival-returns-to-original-la-habra-location-makes-additions-to-boost-crowds-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/436479\/","title":{"rendered":"Corn Festival returns to original La Habra location, makes additions to boost crowds \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 La Habra Corn Festival will blend popular, long-standing traditions with several new additions designed to broaden community appeal and boost attendance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hosted by the La Habra Host Lions Club for the 77th year<\/a>, the Corn Festival opens Friday, Aug. 21, running through Sunday at El Centro \u2013 Lions Park, with the parade taking place at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday along La Habra Boulevard between Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church and Cypress Street.<\/p>\n

After holding the three-day event at various locations in recent years in an effort to boost attendance, the Lions Club is returning the festival to its longtime home at El Centro Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s more familiar and they feel more comfortable at the park,\u201d parade chairperson Tony Martinez said. \u201cWe\u2019re getting a lot of compliments about bringing it back to the original site.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the first time, the parade features six grand marshals, each chosen to connect with different factions of the community, Martinez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur community has grown,\u201d he said. \u201cThe demographics have changed over the years. We\u2019re now trying to support (every community group).\u201d<\/p>\n

Grand marshals include Frank Mazzotta, longtime football coach at La Habra High School; Lauren Lyster, co-anchor of the KTLA 5 Weekend Morning News and a reporter for the station; Dodger superfan Jose \u201cBlue Beard\u201d Lara; Cindy Shea, founder of the Mariachi Divas; Roberto Guadarrama, prominent Grammy-nominated Mexican musician from the band Los Bikos; and Bobby Amaro, drummer best known for his work with the industrial rock band Stabbing Westward.<\/p>\n

The parade itself will also see new features, including five marching bands and a post-parade \u201cbattle of the drum lines\u201d competition at El Centro Park, where bands can receive awards based on scores from a panel of judges.<\/p>\n

New rides are also being introduced on the festival grounds, including a tall swing ride and an expanded set of kiddie rides placed along a side street. The festival will feature shopping, games, corn eating contests and lots of food, including thousands of ears of corn.<\/p>\n

A new weekend-long raffle will offer prizes ranging from bicycles and TVs to a major grand prize: a three-day cruise to Ensenada plus $2,000 in cash.<\/p>\n

With a dip in attendance in recent years, Martinez emphasized that the festival could not survive without its yearly financial backing from the city.<\/p>\n

Without city support last year, the Lions would likely have operated \u201cin the red,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n

Funds raised by the festival and other programs run by the Lions are distributed to local nonprofits, schools and youth programs, including the La Habra Boys & Girls Club, the Gary Center, senior programs, and programs at La Habra and Sonora high schools.<\/p>\n

The City Council in May agreed that the city would discount by 50% what it asks the Lions Club to pay for expenses related to the festival, such as costs for police services and city employee time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s put on by an all-volunteer organization, a 501(c)(3),\u201d La Habra Mayor Jose Medrano said at the time. \u201cA true charity. Everything they do, everything comes back to the community. I want to make sure that does not go away. And as best as possible, that the city can help \u2026 absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city will also completely subsidize its costs in connection to the Saturday morning parade.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t not let the Lions Club not have this Corn Festival because it is about a caring community and this is what makes us different,\u201d Councilmember Rose Espinoza said in May. \u201cSo, it has to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you go<\/p>\n

What: La Habra Corn Festival<\/p>\n

When: 5 to 11 p.m. on Aug. 21; 9:30 a.m. parade and festival is 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Aug. 22 (food booths open at 10 a.m. following the parade); noon to 8 p.m. on Aug. 23<\/p>\n

Where: El Centro-Lions Park, 320 E. Erna Ave., La Habra<\/p>\n

Cost: Free admission<\/p>\n

Information: lhcornfestival.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 La Habra Corn Festival will blend popular, long-standing traditions with several new additions designed to broaden…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,7,179,5910,23,611,136],"class_list":["post-436479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-california","tag-community","tag-la-habra","tag-local-news","tag-orange-county","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}