Photo courtesy of The Throw Down Cornhole Festival
New features include a World Axe Throwing League Tournament and an Expansive Food Court
The Throwdown Cornhole Festival returns to beachside Ventura County Fairgrounds on August 23 – 25. Celebrating its 14th year, the tournament draws the sport’s best players from the lower 48 plus Hawaii as well as teams from Canada, Mexico, England, Venezuela, and Sweden. With 1,088 teams competing for over $350,000 in cash prizes The Throw Down Cornhole Festival has grown to be the world’s largest and most popular cornhole tournament.
Sponsored by local favorite Spencer Makenzie’s seafood restaurant, fans of this family-friendly sport, car enthusiasts, music lovers, and foodies will want to mark their calendars to descend upon the Ventura County Fairgrounds to watch masters of cornhole and send off summer in style. This multi-day party features the west coast’s best food, drinks, retail vendors, and live music, as well as DJs spinning tunes throughout the tournament.
This year brings new features and events. The World Axe Throwing League (WATL), and sponsor The Mighty Axe, have teamed up with The Throw Down to bring the SoCal ThrowCal tournament to the fairgrounds. A WATL Tier 1 Tournament, the three-day event attracts some of the top ‘throwers’ in the sport and includes thrilling-to-watch competitions in hatchet, big axe, and knife throwing categories.
Attendees are also invited to go on a culinary adventure at the new Throw Down Food Experience on Sunday. With over 25 innovative food trucks and pop-up restaurants that are curated for variety and quality, there will be something to tempt everyone’s taste buds.
Now in its second year, a highlight of the festival is Saturday’s Throw Down Truck Show that showcases classic vehicles from the 1960’s through the 1980’s – with a special emphasis on vintage ‘square body’ body types including early Broncos, Jeeps, Scouts, Suburbans, Blazers and Chevrolet C10 pickups. Car clubs from throughout California will be participating and prizes will be awarded in many categories. Ventura-based Crown Classics will be bringing over 60 high-end cars, trucks and exotics that will be available for purchase.
As a growing sport with a worldwide following, Cornhole games are unique in that champion players as young as 6 years old will be seen playing against adults as skill in the game can be mastered at almost any age. The sport and The Throw Down tournament have garnered the attention of ESPN Networks, which will be streaming live coverage on all three days, including the finals on Sunday.
For those who want to play cornhole just for fun, all festival attendees are invited to play for free on the open-to-the-public courts, in the midst of the excitement but without the high stakes. Players can also join non-tournament cash blind draw games to try their luck. A big hit with Throw Down enthusiasts is “Cornhole Trebuchet” where players buy tickets for the chance to launch giant bean bags 150 feet at an oversized cornhole board. Accuracy at that distance is challenging, but the lucky winner takes the ‘pot’ which can add up to thousands of dollars.
For more information, visit https://thethrowdowncornholetournament.com/
