Doing a Pretty Fair Job

The empty parking lot at the Orange County Fairgrounds is misleading.

Behind the emptiness, there is a buzz of activity. Trucks and carts drive past workers in hard hats assembling carnival rides. Painters, landscape artists and sculptors scramble to build banana trees, paint umbrella stands bright green and sculpt a Hawaiian island out of 1,000 tons of sand.

Few stalls are set up by Tuesday afternoon, and the fair starts Friday. The few days in between are barely enough time to create the annual fair, which is expected to draw more than 700,000 people during its 17-day run.

“Every day there is something new being set up. It’s nice to see the flags go up, the roller coaster and carnival rides. Everybody is doing their own thing,” said Lynn Howes, sponsorship and promotions coordinator of the fair.

Even though preparations for the 105th annual fair began in December with the planting of real banana and sugar cane trees, most vendors and the 400 temporary workers who rebuild the traveling carnival in Costa Mesa arrived only Monday.

This “is the busiest time of the carnival for us because equipment is coming and being placed,” said Tony Fiori, marketing director of Ray Camack Shows, which owns the rides.

The company assembles $20 million worth of rides each year at fairs across Arizona, Texas and Southern California. Fiori has visited the Orange County Fair the last two years and enjoys the small-town atmosphere. “It’s a little country fair in a big city,” said Fiori, who has spent 30 years going to fairs.

The carnival will have 55 rides, several of them new ones, including a steeper roller coaster, a taller Ferris wheel and a log ride that splashes through water.

Children can get a sense of their own carnival in Kiddie Land, where clowns and candy will abound. They can escape into a world of adventure with Indiana Jones and rides on elephants or in tiny bumper cars.

A major attraction this year is the volcanic island. Built with 42 truckloads of sand, the island will be a work in progress to be completed on the last day of the fair. Using special tools to carve the 1,000-ton mound of sand and wooden crates to compress it, sand sculptors are swiftly converting the pile into a miniature smoking volcano encircled by Hawaiian deities and figurines. Each day a new image emerges, and the sculptors remain hushed about the final result.

The island will stand as a backdrop to Polynesian dancers, demonstrations of Hawaiian life and displays of lei making and basket weaving, which goes along with the fair’s theme, “We’re Going Tropical.”

The fair also features a variety of reptiles and fish this year. In the Bug and Tackle Barn, aquariums ranging from small versions made of glass to swimming pool-size, fiberglass tanks await the arrival of fish and reptiles. The perfect temperature and salt level is being maintained for the sharks, jellyfish, sea horses and catfish donated by fisheries across California. Kids will be able to plunge their hands into a tank named “Touchy Feely,” albeit with a small warning--”Don’t Pull the Fish Out of the Water.”

In keeping with the secondary theme “Nuttin’ but Fun,” a display of rare fruits will be on display.

And, of course the annual livestock shows, cooking and arts and crafts competitions, animal races, music and entertainment will be featured at the fairgrounds and the adjacent Arlington Theatre.

The fair runs from Friday through July 27. Admission is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and $2 for children of ages 6 to 12.