It started out like most things: with an idea. In 1969, Bill and Cindy Wooten started the Oregon Country Fair as a way to make money for an alternative school. Today, the fair has grown to accommodate nearly 45,000 people, maturing to cater to an audience beyond the hippie counterculture of the ’60s that began it - locals looking for some summer fun and tourists from all over the country.
There from its inception, Mary Wagner has been involved with the fair in one way or another every year, tallying more than half her life as the fair celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. “I first got involved from knowing Bill and Cindy,” Wagner said. “The fair started as idealism. The idea of coming together and supporting each other in celebration, supporting some of the more positive ideals of the hippie counterculture of the ’60s.”
Wagner is an elder, an honored title that signifies she has worked at the fair for at least 20 years and is older than 55. Wagner wrote the bylaws for the fair, helping it become a nonprofit corporation.
Oregon Country Fair
Where: | 24550 Chickadee Lane, Veneta, Oregon |
When: | July 10-12, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. |
How much: | $18-$21 for a single day, $48 for three-day pass. Tickets are available at TicketsWest locations around the area or via the TicketsWest Web site. No tickets will be sold at the fair site. |
How to get there: | The Lane Transit District is offering free rides to the fair with your ticket. For more information, visit the fair’s Web site at oregoncountryfair.org. |
As it celebrates this important milestone in its history, many look back on the growth the fair has experienced over the years. Roxanne Wergeland was only a month old when her mother first took her to the country fair. She described the experience of being a child at the fair as a kind of utopia.
“It was such a magical, awesome place,” she said. “We’d make new friends. It was an escape from our real life and from normal people. It was really kind of cool.”
Growing up, her mother made money selling crafts at festivals. She was a seamstress, among other things, and had a booth at the fair where she sold her handmade treasures.
“When I was about 13, she asked us how we could be a part of the fair.” Wergeland said. “We had to find something to do.” Joining the teen crew, Wergeland began her more active leadership role in the fair and is now the registration co-coordinator.
This year, her decision to participate didn’t come as easily as it used to. “This year I had some hesitations,” she said. “It’s not the same fair it used to be. It’s such a big place and a big creation; it’s not always the safe wonderful utopia it was when I was a kid.”
Her decision to remain a part of the fair’s production came from her proactive attitude. “I can’t complain about something if I’m not going to be a part of the change,” she said.
Louise Lumen echoed Wergeland’s thoughts about the growth in the number of fair-goers. “It takes a little bit of the magic away, in other ways it makes the magic bigger,” she said. Living on the East Coast, Lumen started going to the fair when she would visit her dad in Oregon for the summers. “I didn’t understand really anything of it, for me it was just a fun vacation,” she said.
“My first real and solid memory as a kid is that it was the one place that I could disappear for the day,” she said. “I remember a sense of freedom at the fair that I didn’t get elsewhere.”
Now, having joined the production side of the fair and with a two-year-old daughter, she embraces the new perspective she has of the annual Veneta-based event. “It’s definitely a bigger scene now,” she said. “My family’s growing while the fair is growing.”
At the same time, she understands that change is inevitable. “It seems unusual to stay the same as it was 40 years ago,” she said. “I feel really blessed to be a part of the magic.”
Wergeland admits that the feel of the fair comes partly from her coming of age. She still plans to pass along the Fair to her four-year-old son Zack. Although the crowd control has become a daunting task, she reiterates that the fair will remain a part of her life. “I really love the fair so much,” she said. “It’s a uniquely great place.”
Although the fair has changed in many ways, Wagner draws attention to the fact that the fair has remained true to its original goal. “It (still) has a large fundraising endeavor every year,” she said. The fundraising benefits projects associated with arts, environmental and social justice, and this year is geared more toward youth. “For me, every year it’s kind of the rejuvenation of the idealism and spiritual satisfaction,” she said.
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