Old, new ideas keep fair fresh

People and pooches alike enjoyed the Ventura County fair over the weekend

By John Scheibe

August 14, 2000 Web posted at: 10:28 AM EDT (1428 GMT)

VENTURA, California (The Ventura County Star) -- Critics have for years said county fairs, with roots deep in America's agrarian past, have outlived their usefulness and better fit the horse-and-buggy age than the space age.

But a visit to the Ventura County Fair on its closing day, Sunday, revealed a vibrant event, one not only filled with people but with attractions and expositions for just about every taste.

It was a place where the new and the old rubbed shoulders.

Consider a display inside the Agriculture and Natural Resources Building. There, right near the entrance, was a group of mannequins dressed as cowboys sitting around a campfire. Only these cowboys were armed with a laptop computer, a cell phone and an electronic adding machine.

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Back in 19th century America, county fairs were a place where everyone came together to show and see the latest wares and gadgets. Whether it was a dentist showing off a superior set of dentures, or a farmer carrying seeds for a bigger and more disease-resistant pumpkin, county fairs offered something for just about everyone.

And as people enter the 21st century, the secret to their longevity is that they still do, said Teri Raley, a spokeswoman for the fair.

While fairgoers may no longer want to see the latest in denture technology, Raley said many do want to know about a faster and better Internet connection or about turning their homes into smart living spaces, where a computer not only turns lights on and off, but controls the temperature and alerts the owner to an intruder.

Still, high-tech attractions have their limits, Raley said.

"People also are just as interested, as they were more than 100 years ago, in such things as handicrafts," whether it is carving a piece of wood into a beautiful work of art, or making a charcoal drawing, even an embroidery, she said. "I think people will always have a need to see and feel how something is made."

Ventura County resident Jennifer Smith said she returns yearly to the fair because it is such a community event, one which attracts not only her interests but those of her children's.

"There is just such a variety of things to see and do here," said Smith, as she sat inside Agriculture and Natural Resources building, just yards away from a NASA display, where tomatoes, lettuce and other vegetables are grown hydroponically.

Smith not only enjoyed all of the agricultural-related displays, but also the rodeo and music shows. But most of all, Smith really liked the displays in the Commercial Exhibits Building, in part she said because of some of the advanced housewares on display there.

Raley said she expected attendance figures for Sunday to be high since it was the fair's closing day. The attendance figure for Saturday was 28,873, bringing this year's total attendance to 219,539 as of Saturday. This is slightly more than a 10 percent decrease from the 244,586 people who had attended the fair by the same time last year.

Raley said one reason for the decline was that last year's fair was exceptionally well attended and included such popular attractions as the Beach Boys.

"The Beach Boys alone drew close to 13,000 last year," Raley said.

Final attendance figures should be released today, she said.

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