Switchfoot, Train, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Boyz II Men, Los Tigres del Norte set for 2023 San Diego County Fair

Jon Foreman of the band Switchfoot plays to the crowd at KAABOO Del Mar in 2019.

The fair will run June 7 to July 14. The concert lineup also includes Alabama, La Addictiva and more

San Diego Union-Tribune

April 4, 2023 10:39 AM PT

The San Diego County Fair has announced the first 11 headliners for its 2023 Toyota Summer Concert Series. The lineup includes such diverse acts as reggae mainstay Stephen Marley, norteño favorites Los Tigres del Norte, country-music vocal dynamo Randy Houser and the pop-rock band Train, which will kick off the series on June 7.

Also set to appear are the Grammy Award-winning San Diego band Switchfoot, July 3, and Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Lynyrd Skynyrd, June 17. The veteran Southern-rock group will be appearing here as part of its first tour since the March 5 death of guitarist Gary Rossington, who was the band’s last surviving original member.

More performance lineup additions are pending, All concert tickets include same-day admission to the San Diego County Fair, which runs June 7 to July 4 and will be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays in June. The theme for this year’s fair is “Get Out There.”

Concert tickets go on sale online Saturday, April 8 at 10 am. at sdfair.com. An online pre-sale on the same website will run from 10 a.m. Thursday April 6 to 11:59 p.m. Friday. The password for the pre-sale is CAMP23.

2023 Toyota Grandstand Stage concerts

All shows begin at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

Wednesday, June 7: Train; $40–$95.

Sunday, June 11: La Adictiva; $25–$50.

Saturday, June 17: Lynyrd Skynrd; $51–$106.

Sunday, June 18: Grupo Bronco; $30–$60.

Thursday, June 22: Boyz II Men; $35–$75.

Saturday, June 24: Stephen Marley, with Hirie; $30–$65.

Sunday, June 25: Los Tigres del Norte; $35–$80.

Thursday, June 29: Randy Houser (with special co-headliner to be announced in May); $35–$65; 7 p.m.

Saturday, July 1: Alabama; $45–$110.

Monday, July 3: Switchfoot; $25–$50.

Tuesday, July 4: Fireworks Spectacular; $20-$25

George Varga

San Diego Union-Tribune music critic George Varga began drumming in rock bands at 12 and writing professionally about music at 15. A Louisiana native who grew up mostly in Germany, Varga has earned three Pulitzer Prize nominations for his writing at the U-T and is a voting member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In addition to providing live coverage of the Grammy Awards and festivals from Coachella and KAABOO to the 1994 edition of Woodstock, he has interviewed everyone from Miles Davis, Britney Spears and (over a game of chess) Ray Charles to Willie Nelson, Kanye West and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis. A triple first prize-winner for criticism and arts writing at the 2022 San Diego Press Club awards and a first prize-winner at the 2022 San Diego Society of Professional Journalists awards, Varga is also a contributing writer for Jazz Times magazine and has written for Billboard, Spin and other publications. After attending San Diego City College and San Diego State University, he created and taught the 2002 UC San Diego Extension course, “Jazz in a Post-Ken-Burns World.” Varga has written liner notes for more than a dozen albums, including by jazz sax greats James Moody and Michael Brecker, and contributed two chapters to the book, “Dylan: Disc By Disc.”