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The Southern California Overland Show Is at Pomona Next Month, and It Is Not Overland Expo
Two days at the Fairplex on October 24 and 25, 15,000 to 18,000 people, kids under twelve free. The name confusion is worth clearing up before you buy a ticket.
The California Overland Adventure and Power Sports Show returns to the Fairplex in Pomona on October 24 and 25, running 10am to 5pm both days. Organisers expect 15,000 to 18,000 people across the weekend and describe it as the biggest edition yet: hundreds of exhibitors, overland rigs, campers, e-bikes and gear, with food trucks and giveaways running through both days. Children under twelve get in free.
Clear up the name before you go looking for tickets, because two different shows get conflated constantly. This is not Overland Expo. It is produced by a separate company, and its exhibitor list leans broader than a pure overland event — Falken, Forest River, Triumph, BMW, Westin, Harley-Davidson and Polaris alongside the overland builders, plus marine, RV and adventure motorcycle displays. The Cal 4x4 Association, CORVA and the state and national park services have also exhibited.
Overland Expo's own Southern California event ran in March this year, not October, and for 2027 it moves out of the region's usual venue to Costa Mesa on March 13 and 14. Its remaining 2026 date is Overland Expo East in Arrington, Virginia, on October 23 to 25 — the same weekend as Pomona, on the other side of the country.
The practical difference between the two is what you are going for. Overland Expo is built around instruction: classes, driving courses, roundtables, a film festival. The Pomona show is a trade floor. If you want to sit in forty campers in an afternoon and talk to the people who build them, Pomona does that better and costs less. If you want to be taught to recover a stuck truck, that is the other one.
The same organiser runs shows in Sonoma and San Diego on other weekends, so check you are buying for the right city as well as the right event. Pomona tickets and the early-bird offer are on the show's own site.
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