Rural Respite : Valley Fair Opens Today, Offering a Reminder of a Bucolic Past

Pig races, karaoke divas, cowboys and cotton candy will reign when the 49th annual San Fernando Valley Fair opens this afternoon--but on Wednesday, arranging toy animals and calming live ones were the order of the day.

Up to 70,000 people are expected to visit the fair, being held at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center through Sunday, to celebrate this year’s theme of “How the West Was Fun.” Organizers predict that inclusion of the Flying U Rodeo of the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Assn. will boost attendance from last year’s 45,000.

A pre-fair tour Wednesday found 15-year-old Sophia Ornelas in the livestock tent, watching over the 925-pound steer she has raised for nearly a year. Her charge, Rascal, was content to relax in the shade chewing hay--but Sophia was quick to debunk the myth that cows are simple.

“They’re very smart,” she said. “A lot of people underestimate ‘em.”

A student in Canoga Park High School’s agriculture program, she said that she enjoys raising animals but admitted that seeing them sold for meat at the fair can be bittersweet.

“You get attached to ‘em,” she explained.

In the Los Angeles Culinary Institute, which makes its home at the equestrian center, master chef Raimund Hofmeister was preparing a diverse menu featuring Greek, German and Polynesian cuisine and a variety of strawberry concoctions that will greet fair-goers in the international food court. Institute students will prepare the food and staff the booths.

“For the students, it’s ideal,” he said. “It’s a great training ground.”

Along the dusty midway, brightly colored thrill rides like the Gravitron and Zipper stood silent in the afternoon sun, waiting for the riders they will hurl and spin through the air beginning today.

On the ground, 20-year-old Miller Stokes busied himself stocking the ring toss booth with enormous stuffed animals that will be given away as prizes.

His advice to aspiring ring tossers?

“Don’t throw the ring hard,” he said.

To some, the country fair may seem an anachronism in the middle of a metropolis, but to the participants it’s a celebration of customs and skills that remain vital.

“The fair represents a very important part of life,” said Cleveland High School teacher Don Runyan, who with wife, Ra Jeanna, was helping set up the home arts pavilion. “It represents family, it represents creativity.”

For Ruth Eddy, a native country girl who is the fair’s superintendent of farming, flowers and gardening, it is the very lack of urban amenities that makes the fair appealing.

“People get tired of the hustle and bustle and the freeway traffic,” she said. “To me, it’s [like] going home again.”

* WHAT’S HAPPENING: Schedule of fair events. B3