Oregon Country Fair volunteers build among the trees for 2024 weekend of forest whimsy

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Oregon Country Fair The 2024 Oregon Country Fair, July 12-14 outside Eugene, has booths under tree canopies for 300 artisans to show their hand-crafted wares. (Jeremy Running Photography/Jeremy Running)

Don’t be distracted by the visual folderol unfolding at the Oregon Country Fair, July 12-14 outside Eugene. The art, food and music fair hatched in 1969 during the halcyon days of hippiedom is more than three days of flower-child expression.

The nonstop parade of belly-baring tuba players, wolf-headed stilt walkers and other flamboyances floating by celebrates the event’s long-held mission: Respect the land.

Just look at the volunteer-created architecture. The 17 stages for performers — like comedian, actor, beatboxer and musician Reggie Watts who appears July 12 — were designed to be dismantled and stored after the event, acknowledging the unrestrained Long Tom River will flood the ground in winter.

Artwork and a rainbow of colorful banners dangle from tree limbs along Shady Lane, Abbey “Rode” and other dirt paths contoured to follow the riverbank and create a fairy universe under leafy canopies.

Structures used as food and craft booths are made from repurposed wood and fallen branches, some felled by January’s ice storm. The booths for 300 artisans, packed with pleated taffeta dancing wings to natural mosquito repellent for sale, are repaired and reused every year.

“We take our trees very seriously,” said Vanessa Roy, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Country Fair, which has been called a pure repository of Sixties energy and spirit. “We always want to be a good steward of the land. We build into the trees without damaging them and we work hard to not disturb the forest duff.” Brush cutting and nails in trees are not allowed.

“Building is always done with architects, careful permitting and planning, and looking toward the future in terms of (eco-friendly) materials,” said Roy.

The nonprofit Oregon Country Fair, which debuted the same summer as the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in New York, commits $1 from each $60 ticket sold to fund policies and projects that promote conservation and sustainability of natural resources. Another beneficiary of ticket sales is the arts and leadership Culture Jam Youth Camp, held on the fairgrounds in August.

Over time, the Oregon Country Fair has continued to install green features to its 500 acres on ancestral land of the Kalapuya people. Forests, grasslands, wetlands and riparian vegetation are maintained as refuges for wildlife, including Roosevelt elk, black bear, river otter and more than 110 species of birds.

The native ash trees, vulnerable to the invasive beetle, the emerald ash borer, are in danger and solutions are being addressed by the fair’s Land Use Management & Planning (LUMP) team. “We are planting saplings” to see what can replace the ash trees if needed in the future, said Roy.

Onsite solar energy powers much of the fair’s villages and stages. The fair also has a water system, recycling and composting facilities, and a volunteer fire-mitigation team.

As for the costumes, the event “is the perfect canvas to express your style while respecting our beautiful fairgrounds,” suggested the fair’s Facebook post. “Think thrifted, handmade, or upcycled costumes that celebrate creativity without leaving a trace.”

Pitching in to help the fair’s 11 staff members are 5,000 volunteers, including Back Up Managers, otherwise known as BUMs, who work as part of an “association of equals,” according the fair’s code of conduct, to safeguard plant and animal life and extend planet-protecting practices beyond the Oregon Country Fair.

“There is a lot of intention behind the community we build and we’re fortunate we have volunteers,” Roy said. “People put in time to build these spaces because they love it. The fair transports people away from normal life into a fairy world.

“We build into the trees and show that the land is in control, not us, to help people feel they are living in a toadstool,” she continued. “All of us wanted to be Smurfs when we were children, and now we can be.”

The environment was a large part of the counterculture movement in the 1960s, and the Eugene area was an epicenter for free thinkers like University of Oregon grad and novelist Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters bus mates.

Kesey, a regular figure at the Oregon Country Fair, summed up the tradition-busting times with ”just understand it is possible to be different without being a threat.”

In 1986, Kesey appeared onstage at the Oregon Country Fair dressed in a dark suit and white fedora. He spoke about Oregon hippies and legalizing marijuana, according to The Oregonian, but then turned his attention to the gathering itself.

People need a way to directly communicate with each other, he told the crowd, to “stave off madness in the long hours twixt supper and sleep.” The solution could be found with the people of the Oregon Country Fair. “The answer isn’t television, or art, or music, or literature,” he said. “It’s magic — and this is it.”

IF YOU GO

The 55th Annual Oregon Country Fair is 11 a.m.-7 p.m. July 12-14, near Veneta 12 miles west of Eugene on Oregon 126. Tickets must be purchased at oregoncountryfair.org before the fair: $150 for three days, $60 daily (children 12 and under are free).

Total attendance over the three days is expected to be about 45,000 people. Parking is limited and it’s recommended ticket holders carpool, take the free Lane Transit District’s Oregon Country Fair Express shuttle bus from Eugene or ride a bike (lockable bike racks are available).

Dust, heat, crowds and uneven surfaces make the fair grounds difficult for people with mobility limitations. Volunteers wearing 4A (Alter-Abled Access Advocacy) shirts are onsite to assist. A battery re-charging station for electric wheelchairs and a limited number of wheelchairs, canes and crutches are available at the Dragon’s Head near the Main Gate.

Since 1997, fair organizers have promoted a drug- and alcohol-free event.

— Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072

jeastman@oregonian.com | @janeteastman