Summer has a way of sticking in the fondest part of memories. Maybe it’s the warmth of the unbroken sun or the way everyone seems to adopt a more laid back way of doing things. The sights and smells help create that lasting impress; kids swimming at the pool, the crumble of sand at the beach, the smell of oak barbecue mingling slightly with the wafting scent of jasmine. For years, another highlight of summer for Santa Marians has been the Santa Barbara County Fair.
The smell of corn dogs and kettle corn hangs heavy just outside the entry gates, making it almost impossible to turn away. The Santa Barbara County Fair coordinators always make sure there is music and fun just inside the gate to start the visit off right.
Everyone who has ever been to a county fair has a favorite memory. Memories of the Santa Barbara County Fair all depend on what decade you attended. The fair has evolved through the years, but it started out as a place to hold car races and home arts competitions, and to display livestock. In those early years, entering your best jam in the home arts competition earned you bragging rights over your neighbor. It was a thing of pride. And having the biggest heifer, well, that was really something to brag about. Fairgoers marveled at the talent of their neighbors and delighted in the good-hearted competition.
These days those activities continue to make up a large part of the fair, but fairgoers have lost that same enthusiasm for them. Some people guess it’s because there are so many other activities competing for entertainment. Others think it’s because people are so busy these days. Still others think it’s simply that the youth of today have grown away from the community’s agricultural roots.
The good ol’ days
Fairs go back centuries in a variety of forms, from Roman times when they were considered a time of holiday to Medieval times to today, but the one thing that is common throughout the years is a fair’s purpose. It’s always been a temporary gathering place. A place to celebrate. A market to display, a place to buy, sell, or trade wares.
The Santa Barbara County Fair hasn’t been around for hundreds of years, but it was established more than a century ago. The first Santa Maria Valley Fair, as it was called, was held in September 1891. It was, and still is, administered by the state’s 37th District Agricultural Association, which was established that same year. The goal of the association was to showcase the community’s interests and talents. At the time, those interests were primarily agriculture, livestock, and home and arts activities like quilting, canning, and baking.
By 1920, the fairgrounds were on the 700 block of East Main Street and the event was officially named Santa Barbara County Fair. Later the fairgrounds moved to Hancock Field, and that’s where it stayed until after World War II, when it moved to its present location.
Over the years, the fair has continued to evolve, growing from a seven-day event to a 10-day affair to a five-day celebration. It’s gone from being represented mostly by local businesses peddling their wares to featuring a lot more attractions from all over the country. It’s nothing like the Mid-State Fair in Paso Robles, with its big-name entertainment and sprawling grounds, and it will never be. And that’s exactly how Santa Barbara County Fair directors want it to stay.
“We run a nice country fair. We don’t focus on entertainment, we focus on having a good old country fair,” Santa Maria Fairpark General Manager Dave Pierce said.
Pierce said the fair offers good entertainment that is free, but he hopes fairgoers will visit the other activities the fair offers.
“We want them to come spend time going through the exhibits, concessions, the carnival,” Pierce said. He added that many people who attend big name concerts at other fairs mostly go for the concert and skip the exhibits.
Yvonne Biely, marketing coordinator for the Santa Maria Fairpark, grew up in Santa Maria and remembers when the fair was an important family event.
“We lived over by Hancock and we would all walk together here. Bozo the clown was always by the gate. He’d twist the balloon and put it in your hair and you’d wear it around all day and you’d think you looked so cute,” Biely said.
“Oh, and there’d be these chameleon lizards and they would be on leashes and you could buy them and my mom would be so mad if we brought one of them home. We would eat here too; we’d always have a corndog,” Biely said.
In fact, most everyone does. Pierce said that having a corndog is one of the classic memories people have of the fair. It remains a draw.
Times have changed
While many aspects of the fair have changed, many have stayed the same. A favorite memory of those who grew up attending the county fair is the Home Arts and Ag exhibits—only, they are not such a draw anymore.
“You know the old movies, the Country Fair where there’s singing and dancing? Those days are gone,” Pierce said.
Pierce said he remembered his grandmother preparing jams and jellies and baking every year for the county fair where he grew up. He said back then, it was about taking pride in accomplishment. It was about competition and beating your neighbor. Having the best cake, quilt, or livestock animal.
“I’d love to revive it, but it’s not where people’s interests are. People’s lives are just so busy today,” Pierce said.
Norma DeBernardi agrees with Pierce—but only to a point. She said that young people truly are interested in these things, but there is a lack of exposure. She said she taught 4-H classes for 40 years and entering was a lot easier. Forms were dropped off to local groups. The events were highly publicized.
“The publicity isn’t the same, DeBernardi said. “There isn’t enough publicity. Before it was really pumped up.”
This year, there were a total of 6,744 entries and 1,672 exhibitors. The largest entry was for swine projects, with 738, and poultry had 436. There were 89 entries in adult home arts, and 297 in youth
home arts.
Most of the support in these programs comes from students in FFA and 4-H. For DeBernardi, that proves young people are interested as long as they are introduced to the subjects. Parents are too busy to expose their children to agriculture education and home arts, she said.
“I think kids really want to learn. They are just really eager to learn; they just need someone to take time to mentor them,” she said.
Those lessons last a lifetime, too. Throughout her years of teaching, DeBernardi still runs into many of her former students.
“I ran into someone at Costco the other day. He said, ‘Mrs. DeBernardi, do you remember me? You taught me boys’ cooking.’ Can you imagine that? He’s a man now with his own kids. It’s so nice to reconnect with those kids from years ago,” she said.
DeBernardi and her family have a long history of supporting ag education. She said it’s important that youth know where their “food and fiber” comes from. It’s not just the knowledge that benefits them, however. They also earn money from the projects they enter in the livestock auctions.
These are kids like Jim Glines, who’s now a longtime Santa Maria banker. Glines first exhibited at the Santa Barbara County Fair in 1951 or 1952.
“Back then, we hardly had TV. There was no Disneyland. There was no competition for the dollar. People are harder to entertain now. But back then there were two big things. There was the rodeo and the county fair,” Glines said.
Glines is now an auctioneer at the event. Having experience from both sides of the ring—as auctioneer and as an exhibitor—he said that while the influence of the livestock portion of the fair over fairgoers may not be as strong these days, its presence is stronger than ever.
“They’ll send 750 to 800 animals on that Saturday the 18th. The auction runs 14, 16, even 18 hours, and they’ll raise over a million dollars. That’s a strong statement,” he said.
Glines is proud of his participation in the livestock exhibits both now and when he was growing up. And having family continue the tradition of participating is the icing on the cake—or the lid on the Mason jar.
“I consider myself really blessed for being able to say that last year made the third generation—myself, my son, and my granddaughter—of having 4-H projects in the fair. I feel especially blessed I was in 4-H from fourth grade to senior year of high school. Had it not been for the money I had received from my 4-H projects, I couldn’t have [gone] to college. I went to Cal Poly, and the money I raised paid for it,” he said.
Glines said not only does exhibiting livestock help 4-H and FFA students raise money (buyers buy the animals at a premium and then sell them at retail, writing off the loss), it also teaches them compassion for animals and discipline. After all, the animals have to be fed, cleaned, groomed. That means the student doesn’t have the luxury of a day off. And at the end, there’s a payoff. In addition to the money they earn, most get to walk away with a sense of pride and accomplishment.
“I think it’s as good an experience that a boy or girl can have,” Glines said.
It’s about friends and family
Despite the dwindling interest—mostly in the home and arts—the fair remains the place to see and be seen, grab a corndog in one hand, a cotton candy in the other, and feel like a kid again.
DeBernardi remembers it being about agriculture, but also about friends and family.
“It was a social event, it was like a reunion, and you’d always run into someone you knew,” DeBernardi said.
And for a lot of people it still is. The Santa Barbara County Fair attracts 1,100 visitors each year. Those visitors get to see free entertainment like Rick Springfield, Boyz II Men, or Clint Black, the Destruction Derby, and the Country Rodeo and Calf Scramble. Visitors can get hypnotized or watch up-and-coming local artists perform. Climb a rock wall or watch a turkey stampede. Wear a balloon hat or twirl on a carnival ride until nausea starts. Eat funnel cake or a giant pickle. Eat funnel cake and a giant pickle. Win a stuffed bear, hold hands, have a first kiss/first love/summer fling. And remember it all with a strip of funny-face pictures from a photo booth. All those favorite summertime memories happen at the county fair.
DeBernardi and her family, her children, and grandchildren continue their annual fair tradition.
“We still go to the fair every year. It’s a reunion. It’s a big event for us and it’s important to our community,” she said.
Contact Arts Editor Shelly Cone at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 14-21, 2011.