Oregon Country Fair: The Festival That Became a Community
Near Eugene, Oregon
The Oregon Country Fair began in the rain on a November weekend in nineteen sixty-nine, in a neighborhood on the east side of Eugene called Hawkins Heights. About three thousand people came. The event was billed as the Oregon Renaissance Faire, and it had been organized by two people named Ron and Robin Ulrich as a fundraiser for an alternative school called the Children's Community School. Each vendor paid one dollar to participate.
By the following year the fair had moved west of Eugene, to a piece of land along the Long Tom River near the small town of Veneta. By the early nineteen seventies it had acquired its present character: a mid-summer celebration held in July, on a wooded property, combining handmade crafts, live performance, elaborate costumes, and a generally festive commitment to alternative ways of living. The organization officially incorporated as a nonprofit in nineteen eighty-two and purchased its land, wetland included, from the proceeds of the fair itself.
What distinguishes the Oregon Country Fair from its analogues in other cities is less the event itself than the year-round community it sustains. The people who build the fair, perform at it, vend at it, and maintain the property have organized into a network that functions well outside of July. It has been a continuous institution for more than fifty years.
The Wall Street Journal, which is not known for coverage of alternative culture, once listed it among the best summer festivals in the country. The fair draws around thirty-five thousand visitors over its three-day run. Tickets are not cheap. The one dollar per vendor entry fee has not been in effect for some time.
