On a sweltering Sunday afternoon in the woods near Veneta, children leapt, adults played and families small and large danced as the 39th annual Oregon Country Fair wound to a close.
An anticipated 18,000 visitors who attended Sunday’s festivities were treated to a scene straight out of a fairy tale: Fair volunteers waved magic wands with flowing streamers to welcome visitors to the fair.
Glittering fairies and frolicking elves wove their way through the fair’s wooded paths. Women in sunset orange and scarlet red beaded garments jingled their way through the crowds. And children, faces painted with glittering purples, pinks, greens and blues, skipped about.
The total number of fair-goers was expected to climb to roughly 45,000 for the entire weekend, according to event organizers.
Many of the visitors found their way to the Love Lounge, a place to stop and relax and share visions and thoughts about the fair. Smiling families rested in the lounge and chatted with fair volunteers.
In the lounge, wearing an ankle-length black wrap embellished with red-rimmed yellow flames, was 33-year-old Jacob Blaser, who has long been a part of the fair’s family. Blaser, a Eugene native, began participating in the fair when he was two years old.
When Blaser was a child, his parents had a bartering booth at the fair where they traded crafts with others.
As a volunteer for the Vision Quest booth, which outlines the fair’s goals and visions, Blaser is charged with surveying visitors and gathering their input on how to improve the fair. In the Love Lounge, visitors filled out the Fair Family Survey while sitting beneath the canopy of a tree with its branches decorated with pink- and red-colored hearts.
“It’s the fair’s own style at attempting to get all the different constituents of the fair to become involved in strategic planning,” Blaser said. “We try to have a diverse set of voices. Diversity is key to creating a sustainable organization.”
The organizational work of the Oregon Country Fair extends far beyond the three-day event.
“It’s like a perennial flower,” said Steve Lambott, 44, the husband of longtime fair participant Jeanette Hardison. “It’s leafy in the winter, buds in the spring, then blooms fully for three whole days in July. It’s a year-long process.”
Lambott became involved in the fair because of his wife, Hardison, a Corvallis resident who has attended the fair since 1987. She started volunteering in 1993.
At the fair, Hardison is part of the Green Earth booth, a group of community educators and activists promoting ways to obtain a greener planet.
Hardison said the amazing part of Green Earth and the fair is its ability to enlighten others.
Hardison said the fair is deeply ingrained in her. “This is my great extended family,” she said. “Each year it’s one amazing family reunion.”
As fair-goers walk by clutching their picture frames, tie-dyed blankets, stained glass art and lemonade, Hardison explained Flags of Intention, a program that is part of the Green Earth booth. For the program, fair-goers were asked to write a commitment to making a greener Earth on a small white piece of cloth.
On Sunday morning, Green Earth had a silent parade in which the flags of intention were placed on bamboo sticks and carried along the fair’s paths. All of this effort, Hardison explained, is part of the larger whole that the fair works toward.
Last month, in recognition of the fair’s sustainability efforts, Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy presented the Oregon Country Fair with the Bold Steps in Sustainability Award. The fair refers to its sustainability efforts as a “triple bottom line.”
The fair’s triple bottom line includes its philanthropy, efforts to reduce its carbon footprint and its support of small businesses.
A hallmark of the fair is its call for action in the community. And Hardison said in the future it will continue to remain a strong force.
“We are on our way to making this place a better world,” Hardison said. “I can feel it.”
[email protected]