With Conejo Days Over, ‘There’s Just Dirt’

Crews on Monday carted off carnival rides, tore down rodeo stands and cleared away trash left from Conejo Valley Days, the five-day annual fair.

“It’s a long day of work,” said Brett Taylor, a member of the crew working to return the carnival site off Janss Road near Highway 23 back to a soccer field.

At 7:30 a.m., more than a dozen men started hauling down the 40-foot-tall tent poles and folding up the big top to load into trucks. Less than 24 hours earlier, thousands of people had browsed arts and crafts tables and eaten ice cream, but now only paper plates, cups and napkins remained.

“On Sunday night, the rides were going like crazy,” said Francois Lussier, the event’s general chairman, recalling the carnival’s final night, as visitors took a few final spins on their favorite rides, such as the 80-foot-tall Ferris wheel.

“Now,” he said, “there’s just dirt.”

Event organizers said they won’t know attendance figures or how much money was raised for charities until receipts are totaled, but they expect this year’s numbers to top last year’s. In 1998, more than 43,000 people attended the fair and about $250,000 was raised for 200 nonprofit clubs and organizations that set up booths at the carnival.