on loan from
Mother Nature
prepping the fair brings a communit y toge ther
I
magine a ghost town. The skeletons of buildings,
stripped of their roofs and siding, are overgrown with
trees and vines. Light shining through the rafters al-
lows grass to grow and wildflowers to bloom in the
shells of the structures.
It seems as if a hurricane passed through, if only hur-
ricanes neatly stacked the boards of the buildings they tore
apart.
What at first blush appears to be a scene of destruction
is actually the remnants of an intentional deconstruction.
For a week after the Oregon Country Fair finishes, more
than 100 volunteers become the well-intentioned hur-
ricane, taking apart the fairgrounds and allowing Mother
Nature to reclaim the landscape.
“Nature is the predominant player here, and we get to
play for a few days a year,” says OCF general manager
emeritus Charlie Ruff. In the off-season, the grounds host
a native plant nursery and are maintained as one of the few
refuges for native plants in the Willamette Valley.
Both the construction and deconstruction of the Oregon
Country Fair are done with a conscious effort toward mini-
mal impact and a whole lot of help from the Fair’s friends.
Events like the Fair are “by nature not typically sus-
tainable or low impact,” Ruff says. “But we do a pretty
remarkable job — everything is intentional.”
Ruff admits they’ve made mistakes in the past, but says
turning those mistakes into learning opportunities is one
of the greatest gifts of the Fair. “Not everything works but
we’ve got to try,” he says. “We learn the hard way, but we
spread what we learn from taking risks. We aren’t afraid to
tell people when we screw up.”
by ca r l s e g e r s t r o m
Preparation for the Fair begins about a month before the
grounds open to the public. “It’s like a set of concentric cir-
cles,” says Ruff, on a tour of the fairgrounds in early June.
These layers of preparation include 18 different construc-
tion phases, which include initial tagging for repairs, initial
repairs, inspection, art installations and moving equipment
out of storage and onto the Fairgrounds.
Volunteers are split into 65 different crews with duties
such as pruning and moving overgrown trees and brush,
preparing meals for staff and volunteers, planing fallen
timber at the Fair’s own small-scale mill and rebuilding
the bare-bones structures.
On the weekends leading up to the Fair the grounds will
host as many as 1,000 volunteers a day.
For vendors, preparation for the Fair starts weeks in
advance. Ritta Dreier, owner of Eugene Saturday Market
staple Ritta’s Burritos, will be serving up her popular Mex-
ican fare for the 40th year this July. When EW spoke with
Dreier a few weeks before the Fair, she was already busy
prepping food for the event.
For Fair veterans like Dreier, getting ready for Fair has
become more predictable over the years. Ritta’s Burritos has
been in its current location by the Spirit Tower since the mid
’80s. Knowing what to expect means that every year they can
keep improving and investing in their operations, Dreier says.
“It’s kind of like a family reunion,” she says. To staff
her restaurant for Fair she reconnects with employees who
worked with her more than 30 years ago.
“It’s a lot of work to create a working restaurant out in
the woods,” Dreier says. “It’s a difficult situation, but it’s
amazing how it works.”
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While it takes vendors weeks to get ready for Fair, the
White Bird Clinic has its event medical crew, Rock Medi-
cine, on site as soon as preparations begin. White Bird
Clinic offers a range of free to low-cost medical care, crisis
intervention and other community services year-round in
Eugene and Springfield.
Not only does Rock Medicine play an important role in
ensuring the safety of Fair volunteers and patrons, it is also
the “largest ongoing fundraising effort” for White Bird, ac-
cording to the organization.
Initially operating out of a canvas tent with a wood
floor, White Bird has two to three staff on site in June and
expands its staff and services as more people arrive at the
Fair. By the time the Fair comes, they have two fully opera-
tional locations with dozens of volunteer staff.
Wren Arrington, program manager for Rock Medicine,
says it’s important for them to be on-site as preparations
are underway in case accidents happen.
Arrington discovered OCF in 1981 when he was hitch-
hiking around and serendipitously ended up in Eugene
while Fair was taking place. “Once I discovered it, I started
coming back,” he says. In 1995 he began coordinating with
Rock Medicine — a role he continues to this day.
Though Arrington was initially drawn to the festivities,
he’s found something more over the years.
“The pre-Fair experience is a unique experience because of
the community and camaraderie it forms,” he says. “Sometimes
it becomes more meaningful than the Fair experience itself.”
“People come out for the love of it,” he says. For Arrington,
a sign at the grounds sums up the volunteer Fair experience. It
reads: “We don’t work for free for nothing.” ■
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