5 OREGON COUNTRY FAIR 2010 5
Raven Moon
White Light Crystal
Michael Bertotti
Booth Number L29
Michael Bertotti began as a Saturday
Market crafter, and remembers the days
when the Country Fair organizers used
to visit the market booths and give out
applications, encouraging crafters to sign
up for Fair booth space. “There wasn’t
really a system,” he says, “so I just went to
them and said, ‘Can I be in the Fair?’ and
they said, ‘Whaddaya got?’ They went and
looked at my booth and said I could do it.”
There’s a little dispute in the records about
when this actually was. Bertotti believes
he began his Fair booth in 1980, but Fair
records of Bertotti’s booth go back only
to 1981. “Either they weren’t keeping
records or we weren’t,” he laughs. When
Bertotti joined Saturday Market in ’78, or
maybe ’76 — “Memory … not so good!”
he jokes — he made windchimes out of
old silverware. He began adding crystals
to the windchimes, and then shifted to
making “crystal sunbeamers,” strings of
Swarovski crystals that scatter light into
rainbows.
Bertotti came to Eugene from Modesto,
Calif., in his early 20s, around 1976, to
be with a lady and go to school. “I didn’t
realize I was on the long-term program!”
he says. “The Fair’s a pretty special place.
It was designed to interface with people,
to educate them about different ways of
living, and that you can make a living
through art and heal and transform society,”
Bertotti says. “Things always change over
time, but there’s still a lot of magic out
there. It’s what we call this indescribable
thing that makes things work against all
odds. Sometimes the most magical things
happen.”
Bertotti tells of a woman asking him
what kind of pass she needed for her
vehicle. “I was telling her what you need to
do is go get this kind of pass, and I was just
kind of pointing to say, ‘Over there,’ you
know, and at this point a fairy lady came by
and put a pass in my hand.” Yes, it was the
pass she needed. Bertotti and the lady were
dumbfounded, but the little girls with her
knew it was a real fairy that provided the
pass, and began dancing around singing
about the fairy. “Sometimes there’s no
explaining it,” Bertotti says. “It happens.”
K ONLY!
E
E
W ORGANIC
Levana Appletree
Booth Number 347
Levana Appletree came out here from
Colorado in ’81 with a group of people from
a cooperative house they called Appletree.
Boulder was beautiful, but Levana was
ready to sink her roots into the green hills of
Oregon. When the Appletree house arrived
in Eugene, they were told about the Country
Fair. “You couldn’t be here without hearing
about it,” she recalls. “We went out to the
Fair but for only two hours. We didn’t know
anything about it, so we went out late in the
day and realized there was this entire world
out there, a whole universe. We’d never
listen live
Santa Cruz Organics
ON
E
Bright Promise
Tie Dye
seen anything like it.”
In the early ’80s, Oregon experienced
a bad recession, and Mount St. Helens
had erupted the year before the Appletrees
arrived in Eugene. “We were basically
considered insane to be looking for work
in Oregon since all these calamities were
happening,” Levana says. “When we found
the Fair, we thought that was a sign that we
had made the right choice.” The next year
the group managed to get a Fair booth,
an unheard of feat considering that they
had never sold at Saturday Market, never
even made any crafts to sell. But another
member of the group, Wahaba, taught
Levana to tie dye. “This was incredible
luck, so I of course hung on to the booth
for dear life,” Levana says. Her Saturday
Market booth came later in the ’80s, and
these days Levana also works around town
doing landscaping and organic gardening.
Levana’s son, Yona, helps her with the
booth and also provides Fair entertainment
— fi re dancing, juggling, unicycling. “We
defi ned our own reality, we made our
own normal. And it’s true for hundreds of
people, not just a couple of us,” Levana
says. “People are attracted to this normal
we created and it begins to be something
people want for themselves. You begin to
think twice and think maybe organic food
is a good idea and maybe biodiesel makes
sense. These things we’ve been saying
for how many years suddenly don’t seem
so crazy anymore. I’ve been there long
enough to see that and that’s the most
satisfying thing.”
oregon country fair
LEMONADES
July
9,10 & 11
Lemonade, Limeade, Strawberry Lemonade
& Mango Lemonade
89¢
reg. $3.19
Crystal Geyser
GALLONS OF WATER
reg. $1.49
Pr
ice
s g
RR d
July
8 Ju
ly 16
D
Limit 6 S er cust R mer NF
Hoops & Wings & Poi! Oh Boy!
Elemental Herbs
SPF 20
Sunscreen
Organic & Chemical-free
reg. $19.39
Price
g RR
ly
$9.95
COUNTRY FAIR GEAR IS HERE!
30
89¢
u ly
d J
8
Ju
0 Sand bags, tapestries, sarongs & incense
0 Hemp, Og. Cotton & Bamboo Clothing
0 Tshirts & Hoodies & Backpacks & Hats
0 Glass Pipes
1$785$/)22'6
1
.
e,
n R A traditi R n
st R r
u ris
al natural f RR ds e 1 9
c
hing R u
r c R mmunity sin
WK +LO\DUGRSHQGDLO\DPSP
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
0 Hula Hoops, Fairy Wings & Skirts, and Poi
& Art from Eugene's Best
LOCALLY MADE PRODUCTS ARE OUR SPECIALTY
Get yo-self a PIECE!
We're GRATEFUL for your support!
Mon-Sat 10-7 / Sun 12-5
Corner of 11th & Willamette in downtown Eugene
EUGENE WEEKLY JULY 8, 2010 13