The California Card Festival lands at Clava Sports Facilities in Lake Forest on Saturday, August 8 and Sunday, August 9, 2026, bringing a high-energy two-day weekend show to south Orange County. The Clava venue is one of the more distinctive card-show locations in California — a sports complex with the floor space to host a sprawling vendor floor while still feeling more open and walkable than a tight hotel ballroom — which is part of why the Festival has become a destination weekend for serious OC collectors.
On the floor, expect a deep mix of sports and TCG. Sports tables cover MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, UFC, boxing, and soccer across vintage and modern, with rows of Topps Chrome, Bowman Chrome rookies and prospects, Panini Prizm, Donruss Optic, Select, Mosaic, vintage Topps and Bowman, 1980s and 1990s wax, and case-priced PSA, BGS, SGC, and CGC slabs at the higher-end tables. Trading card games are strongly represented — Pokemon singles and sealed product across the Scarlet & Violet era, Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, One Piece, Disney Lorcana, and Dragon Ball Z all get table space. Memorabilia, autographs, sealed wax, comics, Funko Pops, and supplies like sleeves and top loaders round out the room.
Show hours run 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM on both Saturday and Sunday. Admission is typically a small door fee that includes both days for an extra dollar or two, with kids welcome alongside a parent or guardian. The two-day format gives you room to scope the floor on Saturday and come back Sunday for the pieces you really want — a luxury that compact one-day shows simply cannot offer.
Clava Sports Facilities sits in Lake Forest with on-site parking and quick freeway access from the 5 and 405, making it an easy drive from Anaheim, Irvine, Mission Viejo, and the broader south OC region. The sports complex setting means there is plenty of food and seating on site, and the open floor plan is friendly to families and first-timers who do not want to feel boxed in.
Who should attend? The California Card Festival is built for the full hobby spectrum. Families with kids will find a welcoming weekend outing with plenty to explore, first-timers can wander a real show without feeling overwhelmed, and serious collectors get a deep enough vendor pool to make weekend-long digging worthwhile. Pokemon players, sports card chasers, slab hunters, vintage diggers, modern flippers, prospect collectors, and cross-TCG fans all have a reason to be in the room.
To get the most out of the weekend, arrive close to opening on Saturday for first crack at fresh inventory, walk the full room before pulling the trigger on a big buy, and carry a sorted want list with target prices so you can move fast when a deal appears. Bring cash for the friendliest prices and quickest transactions, with Venmo and Zelle as backups. Pack a slab case and extra top loaders for pickups, and bring a trade binder if you like to deal. For the latest schedule, ticket info, and vendor announcements, check the listing on cardshows.io and the California Card Festival social channels.