LA GRANDE — Attendance at the four-day Union County Fair was down from 2022 but higher than it was 2021 and about average for the past five years.

Attendance totaled about 14,000, down from the 2022 total of 18,500, according to Union County Fair Manager Kathy Gover-Shaw. She said the decline may be due to the fact that the 2022 fair was conducted only a few months after the most restrictions for the COVID-19 pandemic had

been lifted, when people were more eager to get out and do things.

“Everyone was so incredibly excited to get out,” she said.

A second factor working against the fair this year was the weather. Gover-Shaw said the fair was hurt by cold weather on Friday, Aug. 4, when temperatures were in the 70s for a good portion of the day.

“That cold kept our attendance down,” she said.

Gover-Shaw said weather was not an issue in 2022 when there were no cold days and temperatures were moderately warm.

On the brighter side, attendance was up from 2021 when it was about 13,500. Gover-Shaw said the fair’s attendance of 14,000 this year was similar to what the fair was drawing in the years leading up to the pandemic, which essentially forced the fair to be shut down in 2020.

Attendance at the fair, which ended Aug. 5, may have been down, but Gover-Shaw said many of the vendors she talked to said business for them at the fair was brisk.

Auction again a success

The annual Union County Junior Auction at the Union County Fair Aug. 5 enjoyed robust success. The auction, for youth in 4-H and FFA, drew $370,000 for the sale of 148 animals — the second highest total ever, and second only to 2022 when its sale total was $379,000.

All of the money went to the youths who raised the animals. Ken Patterson, a Union County 4-H leader, said that youths generally spend most of the money they receive from the auction for their education and raising animals for the following year’s auction.

Patterson said proceeds from 10 of the animals sold at the auction will be donated to schools across Union County.

The Union County Junior Audition started in either 1986 or 1987, Patterson said, and was first known as the Union County Blue Ribbon Auction.