Next Time, Don’t Book Next

The managers of the Ventura County Fair have refined their formula over the decades to consistently deliver a satisfying mix of old, new and borrowed--but usually not blue.

That reputation slipped for a few long minutes this year when the hip-hop group Next strutted its stuff on the Grandstand Stage, presenting a show peppered with the sexual lyrics and suggestive gyrations that have made it popular with teenagers and unpopular with their parents. The incident was a minor glitch in the overall success of this year’s fair, which entertained nearly 258,000 people during its 12-day run. Yet it shows the challenge of trying to offer something for everyone and the need for caution and savvy in an increasingly fragmented pop culture.

Next’s 1997 debut album, which carries a parental advisory label for explicit content and includes such songs as “Sexitude” and “Tastes So Good,” might have been clue enough that this was a risky choice for a family oriented fair in a conservative county. Nonetheless, fair officials booked the group after adding a clause to its contract forbidding offensive or inappropriate behavior. That clause apparently was ignored by the performers, who merrily told the audience that fair organizers didn’t want them to engage in sexual gestures and obscenities, but that they were going to anyway. And they did, on an outdoor stage audible even to those who chose not to attend the concert. For emphasis, one of the performers mooned the crowd of 9,000.

While some spectators were shocked and have complained, those familiar with the group no doubt knew what to expect. In that, they were a jump or two ahead of fair officials. The Ventura County Fair has a good sense of what it is and what it isn’t. What it is, is wholesome and comfortably traditional. However, what it isn’t--and shouldn’t try to be--is hip or cutting-edge. The fair has little to gain by booking acts likely to offend a large share of its audience.