LA GRANDE — The Union County Fair celebrated its 150th anniversary last week, and rounded out this year’s fair with a win, drawing in more than 18,000 attendees throughout the four-day event — the highest total attendance record it’s seen in the last six years.

“We were exceptionally happy with the attendance this year,” said Kathy Gover-Shaw, the fair manager.

This year’s total outpaced 2021’s four-day attendance of 13,893.

This was Gover-Shaw’s second year at the helm of the community event, and she said that Thursday, Aug. 4, and Friday, Aug. 5, were the busiest days.

Gover-Shaw and the fair board’s six-person team plan the yearly fair months ahead of time, in collaboration with community partners like FFA and 4-H. Gover-Shaw credited the fair’s entertainment, FFA and 4-H programs for getting community members out to the fairgrounds this year, as well as the free senior breakfast sponsored by Grocery Outlet and The Observer.

4-H and FFA participation

“Our 4-H and FFA programs are so strong and just everybody wants to come out and support those,” she said. “It’s just wonderful.”

Ken Patterson, the fair’s auction chair and barn superintendent, said that during the annual sale, 139 sellers showed their market livestock to prospective buyers. The auction brought in $82,000 more overall than last year, rounding out at $378,000.

The fair board included a new event this year called “Over the Hill” an event sponsored by the Eastern Oregon Jackpot where young fair participants could nominate older family and friends to show their animals.

This was also the first year that auction attendees could purchase market animals and donate them to schools in the Grande Ronde Valley — including schools in Cove, Elgin, La Grande, Imbler and Union. According to Patterson, five beef and four pigs were donated. Schools that received donations simply had to cover the cutting and wrapping costs.

“It was super neat to see animals raised by kids go back to students in the area,” Patterson said.

Attractions and entertainment

When it came to finding entertainment for this year’s fair, Gover-Shaw said it wasn’t as difficult to find entertainers to fill the nightly slots on the fairgrounds’ small and large stages.

This year’s musical lineup included many local groups and performers from outside the region, including The Wasteland Kings, Countryfied, Ripple Effect, Brewer’s Grade and Tiller’s Folly — a Canadian group that celebrated its 25th anniversary this year. Gover-Shaw said she heard compliments throughout the week on the strength of this year’s performers.

Two years removed from the pandemic, the fair was mostly back to business as usual, with the help of sponsors and continued improvements to the fairgrounds.

Although the fair has had sponsors in the past, this is the first year that it implemented a three-tiered sponsorship system — champion, reserve champion and blue ribbon. Upon arriving at the fairgrounds this year, patrons were greeted with signs naming each one, including Barreto, D&B Supply, Granite View Foot and Ankle and Tap That Growlers.

“It’s definitely not possible without those sponsors,” Gover-Shaw said of the sponsors’ in-kind and cash contributions.

Gover-Shaw said that all but two vendor spots in their Mount Fanny Exhibit Hall were filled. For many family businesses that might not have a storefront, the fair offers them a yearly opportunity to sell their wares. She noted that these booths would have been full had a few vendors not come down with COVID-19 before arriving at the fair.

The fair board worked throughout the year to make improvements to the fairgrounds in preparation for the four-day event. In collaboration with La Grande Drywall, ACE and Elgin Electric, the board replaced the kitchen ceiling in the Mount Emily Exhibit Hall — the 4-H building — and gave the hall a fresh coat of paint.

Behlen Manfucaturing donated around 30 stock tanks to the fair, which the La Grande Lion’s Club filled with colorful pansies and petunias donated by the Imbler FFA greenhouse.

Carrying on without a carnival

Four carnival businesses across the region went out of business during the pandemic, and the fair has not had a carnival the last two years. Gover-Shaw noted that for the businesses left, the Union County Fair simply isn’t a big enough event.

“If we don’t have 25,000 people overall, we’re not going to be able to get a carnival to come to our event,” she said.

Last year, the fair worked with Bubble Fun to provide inflatable bounce houses, obstacle courses, bungee jumping and bumper ball. Bubble Fun did not return this year due to operating expenses and distance.

According to Gover-Shaw, the fair board is already working on ways to incorporate more activities for kids during next year’s fair, like a climbing wall and a mechanical bull. Still, even without a carnival, the fair increased its attendance in the last two years.

Although the carnival may be a fan favorite among fair attendees, Gover-Shaw noted that the carnival rides and activities have, in the past, actually brought about unwanted behavior at the yearly family-friendly event.

Back to work

For Gover-Shaw and the fair board, they’re already back to the grindstone. The team already has a theme picked out for next year’s fair — “Boots, Jeans and American Dreams.” In the next few weeks it will get to work on the new premium book to make improvements from suggestions they received this year.

Fair Board President Jamie Jo Haddock highlighted in an email the values at the heart of each year’s fair.

“Fairs are the celebration of our rural life. They are a time to come together, socialize, and highlight what our community members have been doing the last year,” she wrote.