‘Our Favorite Fair’ Gets Ready

Karen Worley drove across the country this week with a 2,850-pound horse and a 3,450-pound steer. Brandi Glenn came from San Luis Obispo to help sculpt 500 tons of sand. And Bill Russell hustled in from Las Vegas with his giant handwriting-analysis machine that, for $1.50 a pop, will tell you who you are.

Their destination: the Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa, which opens Friday for a 17-day run.

“This is our favorite fair,” said Worley, who lives in Bradenton, Fla., with her horse named Hercules and her steer named White Mountain. “It’s well organized, clean and busy--and that’s what we come for.”

About 1,000 people a day have been laboring all week to make sure that tradition continues, said fair Chief Executive Becky Bailey-Findley, who began preparations last August. This year’s theme is “Leap Into the Fair--We’re Making a Big Splash.”

“Each year we try to pick a theme that’s agricultural,” Bailey-Findley said. “Last year it was sun, and this year it’s water. Maybe next year it will be dirt.”

Attractions in keeping with the theme--represented by a frog motif--include an area called Beachfront that features exhibits on the history of swimwear and surfing, as well as the three giant sand sculptures Glenn is working on; two new ponds; a “ribbet exhibit” about frogs and reptiles; and a water-drop ride offering fairgoers a 75-foot “unattached controlled” freefall into a safety net.

“You’re taken to the top of a tower and then dropped like a drop of water into a net,” Bailey-Findley said.

The fair has also added some top-line entertainment, including Huey Lewis & the News, Linda Ronstadt, the Indigo Girls, the B-52s, the Guess Who, Styx, Boz Scaggs, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Carrot Top and “Weird Al” Yankovic.

And, in keeping with the post-9/11 mood, opening day is being touted as a “Salute to Heroes,” with the $7 admission fee waived for active military, law enforcement and fire personnel.

Bailey-Findley said that advance ticket sales are already 30% above what they were for last year’s fair, which attracted about 845,000 people. “For the most part, we are a community event,” she said, “so the drop in travel may actually help us--people are looking for something close to home.”

Security has been beefed up, with 10% more security personnel added to the fair’s 1,200 employees as well as an increased Orange County sheriff’s presence. “We’re trying to be very aware and keep direct lines of communication open,” Bailey-Findley said.

The grounds have been busy this week with last-minute preparations.

“This is one of my favorite fairs,” said Glenn, 33, hosing down a huge pile of sand for a company called Sandscapes, whose founders met 18 years ago in Seal Beach before moving to Northern California. “It’s very classy, and they like to change the mix while keeping old favorites.”

Russell, 52, who spends the summer months carting his handwriting analysis machine to fairs and festivals nationwide, described the Orange County crowd as “a little bit more educated and affluent” than those at many other county fairs and thus more interested in his machine. “They have more inquiring minds,” he said, “so are more interested in esoteric things.”

Jaye Hellmich, 13, of Costa Mesa said she had come a few days early with other members of the Goathill Go-Getters, a local 4H Club, to prepare Lilly Pad, a pig she had raised, to be shown at the fair. “We walk them every day, feed them and play with them,” she said. “They’re just like big puppies.”

Will it all come together in time for Friday’s opening? “It’s organized chaos,” Bailey-Findley admitted, “kind of like that controlled freefall.”

In the end, she said, “it’s magical. I walk around Thursday night saying, ‘Oh, we won’t be ready.’ But it’s like fairies come in the middle of the night and we are always ready.”