VENTURA COUNTY FAIR : Conditions Are Right for More Than a Fair Crowd

About 14,000 people are expected to head to Seaside Park in Ventura today for the opening of the Ventura County Fair, a 12-day extravaganza of pungent livestock, wacky contests, old-fashioned hucksterism and white-knuckle carnival rides.

With sunny skies forecast for the 11 a.m. opening of the gates, attendance could swell well above last year’s opening-day crowd of 12,000, said Teri Raley, the fair’s publicist.

“It looks like everything is coming together on schedule,” she said. “Everyone is real mellow.”

Many people are expected to take advantage of a special family-day admission that is good today only, Raley said. Two adults and all children 12 and under will be admitted for $10 if they have a special coupon from Pepsi, she said.

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The coupons are available at all K mart stores in Ventura County, Raley said. Admission otherwise is $6 for each adult, $3 for children ages 6 to 12 and seniors 55 or older, and free for children 5 and under.

Hordes of fair workers swarmed the fairgrounds Tuesday, rushing to complete last-minute tasks before the public arrives.

Carnies hammered carnival rides together, food vendors wiped windows clean and a squad of volunteer judges executed the toughest assignment of all: tasting 638 cakes, breads, cookies and pies entered in the baked goods contest.

For the first time, the midway will feature a 50-foot-high roller coaster that will take thrill-seekers up and down hills at speeds approaching 55 m.p.h., said Tony Fiori, a spokesman for the carnival.

The High Miler has been a popular attraction at other festivals, Fiori said.

“Everywhere we take it, it has been mobbed.”

For those seeking more sedate entertainment, the giant Ferris wheel that gives riders a spectacular ocean view is back. And a concert featuring ‘60s pop icon Tom Jones begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Grandstand Arena.

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Entrance to the concert is free with fair admission and is available on a first-come, first-served basis, officials said.

On the weekends, residents in Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, Camarillo and Oxnard can ride Metrolink to the fair. Round-trip fare is $6 from Simi Valley and Moorpark and $4 from Camarillo and Oxnard.

The first train leaves Simi Valley at 9:30 a.m. and the last train leaves the Ventura station just outside Seaside Park at 11:07 p.m.

Among the other activities scheduled for today are an all-day amateur horse show in the Morgan Arena, a children’s puppet show at 2:30 p.m. in the Children’s Dell and hypnotist Susan Rosen at 5:30 p.m. on the Pepsi Community Stage.

And then there are the exhibits. About 6,000 displays of flowers, rocks and gems, quilts, photographs, art and livestock are spread throughout halls on the fairgrounds’ “Main Street.”

In the Creative Living Building, visitors will get their first look at prize-winning baked goods prepared by the county’s amateur bakers. Women--and, occasionally, a man--started dropping off their wares Tuesday at 8 a.m., said Valerie Ulmer, superintendent of the Creative Living exhibit hall.

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Nita Fouhse of Ventura was busy unloading 25 types of cookies--and one loaf of bread--for judging. She hasn’t entered anything in the fair since 1960, Fouhse said, and started baking two weeks ago.

“I got carried away,” she said. “You make a little of everything you do well and before you know it, you’ve got 26 entries.”

Timothy Micheal of Thousand Oaks accompanied his wife, Karen, to enter the bread and hot cross buns she makes. Karen Micheal said she has been entering food contests for about five years, and has taken home three ribbons.

Timothy Micheal, who volunteers as a host in the Creative Living Building during the fair, said the bakers take their competition very seriously.

“You’re supposed to cut the bread in half, so my wife got out a tape measure to make sure she cut it exactly in half,” Micheal said. “That’s how compulsive these people are.”

Later in the day, a panel of 12 volunteer judges gathered to sample each of the goodies entered and award first-, second- and third-place ribbons. John Nichols of Santa Paula judged the chocolate chip cookies with nuts.

He narrowed the 13 entries down to three winners after touching the cookies, assessing them for appearance and tasting them. Nichols, who owns an art gallery in Santa Paula, has been a volunteer judge for 10 years.

He gave the blue ribbon to Karon Work of Thousand Oaks, the red to Nita Fouhse and the white to Cheryl Lawton of Ventura. After all the nibbling and careful inspection, picking the winning cookie was really quite simple, Nichols said.

“It was the closest to the way my grandma used to make them.”

* FAIR SCHEDULE: B3