O.C. Fair takes on summer mantle

The Orange County Fair will brand itself as the starting gun for the summer season this year.

“Summer Starts Here” will be the fair’s 2014 theme.

The Fair Board got a sneak peek at the new branding during its monthly meeting Thursday.

“There’s a quintessential moment for every season, an event that tells you it’s here, it’s time, I’ve been waiting all year for this,” said Michele Richards, the fair’s chief business development officer.

“It’s the feeling you get when you see the first Christmas lights that go up after Thanksgiving or the first pumpkin patch opens or the first chocolate eggs appear on the shelves. And the sign for the start of summer, well, our customers would say it’s the O.C. Fair of course.”

Last year’s food-based theme, “Come & Get It,” hasn’t completely disappeared though.

The cast of characters known as “foodies” introduced in 2013 will make an encore appearance.

Arturo the Churro, Olivia the Orange, Dip the Corn Dog and more will still be around to greet visitors from around the county and the world, Richards said.

After her presentation, a few Fair Board members voiced their approval.

“It is clever to brand the fair as summer and just get people to think of it as summer in Orange County,” director Gerardo Mouet said.

The fair runs from July 11 through Aug. 10.

“Just 169 more days to go until the opening of the 2014 O.C. Fair, and we’ve been waiting all year for this,” Richards said Thursday. “Everyone knows that summer starts here.”