Screen Play : County Fair Goes High-Tech With Massive Computer Showcase--but There Will Still Be Rides and Animals

At a county fair that sells cappuccinos and hot tubs as a matter of tradition, a Hi-Tech Expo shouldn’t be shocking.

But when the Los Angeles County Fair opens Friday in Pomona for its 24-day run, the new pulsating, massive, warehouse-style computer showcase may surprise a few visitors.

In addition to petting zoos and carnival rides, fair-goers this year can make free international phone calls via a World Wide Web phone. They can play video games until their eyes bleed, and “talk” to the person standing next to them on an Internet video conference--all in a room where sewing machine and refrigerator salesmen once hawked their goods.

The sewing machines and refrigerators will still be at the fair--they’ve just been moved to a different area. And for the $9 adult admission price, folks can still stand in long lines for the restroom and get sick on cotton candy. The fair hasn’t completely acquiesced to the future.

In fact, as an increasing number of state and county fairs nationwide install computer centers on their grounds, they join a movement that embraces not only the future but the spirit of fairs past.

“Originally fairs were a place for leading edge innovation for industry, technology, science, as well as agriculture,” said Nick Anis, a computer journalist and consultant for the expo. “Fairs are just going back to their roots.”

Organizers throughout the state also hope that fairs will be going back to better attendance records. In recent years, the Los Angeles County Fair--the largest in the country--hasn’t come close to beating its record of 1.6 million visitors set during a 24-day run in 1991. Last year’s fair drew 1.4 million, almost 10,000 fewer people than in 1994.

“In the last number of years there has been a big reinvention project . . . to look at how fairs can be more relevant and modern,” said Jim Farley, manager of the Marin County Fair, which was the first county fair to introduce Internet technology. Its 1994 Multimedia Fun House--designed and built by local industries including Lucas Entertainment--drew a record crowd to the small fair, increasing attendance to 118,000 from 103,000 in 1993.

The buzz surrounding the Marin fair’s fun house has inspired many fairs, including L.A. County’s, said Stephen Chambers, executive director of the Western Fairs Assn., a nonprofit trade organization. “Almost every fair I’ve been to this year is doing some kind of computer presentation,” he said.

Chambers and Anis place state and county fairs in the same category as the world fairs of yore, in which some of the greatest inventions known to man were presented.

Although there was no talk of an Eiffel Tower at the High-Tech Expo, fair hands built a big, buoyant computer monitor and floppy drive out of green, purple and silver balloons. The bubble screen will serve as the backdrop for the expo’s stage.

Just about every room of the Pomona Fairplex has a stage. On the grandstand stage such performers as David Benoit and the Village People are scheduled. On the Tropical Paradise Stage visitors can view exotic birds. Budweiser Clydesdale horses are stabled by the agricultural area of the fair. And on the balloon configuration at the expo, speakers will give quick and informative Internet seminars and announce the winners of raffle prizes that can’t be won by just squirting water at a plastic duck.

Of course, there are those who do not plan on driving the 30 miles from Los Angeles down the San Bernardino Freeway to play video games or shoot at plastic ducks. And for them, one of the fair’s main attractions will still be going strong: Horse racing begins Sept. 12.

With an increase in the number of computer-phobic people who are willing to face their fears, the expo hopes to attract more than just bug-eyed 8-year-olds with a penchant for “Star Trek.”

Organizers expect children will drag their parents into the expo from the more traditional areas, such as the display of homemade quilts at the nearby Creative Homemaking building or the Craft Show on Redwood Street.

“This room will be packed,” said Sid Robinson, communications manager for the Fairplex. “I’m sure there will be people coming to the fair just to see the expo.”

To be sure, the fair will attract a host of computer geeks and Dilbert-esque execs. Where else but at the event dubbed “America’s Fair” can Web Masters go to drool over the latest technology and get mocked by mimes?

“This is huge,” said Anis, who added that he has declined offers to help organize similar expos at other fairs. “People can come [to the expo], and they can go to the racetracks. There are Clydesdales. . . . They can go on an elephant ride, and then if they’re still not exhilarated enough, they can get on the Ejection Seat and get shot into the air.”

The expo is just a component of a much larger fair--a fair that has not grown too big for livestock tours, baking contests or chuck wagon races.

As Farley put it: “Computers won’t replace sheep, they’ll just complement them.”