Evergree State Fair’s 2010 theme: ‘Home Grown Fun’

Published 9:51 pm Monday, December 28, 2009

MONROE — It’s a good eight months away, but the theme for next year’s Evergreen State Fair has already started to come alive with animals made from local produce.

The cast of characters includes potato pigs, cauliflower sheep and a horse with carrot legs. There’s even a dandy with a red bell pepper face, blueberry eyes and parsley hair.

“People just thought they were just hysterically funny or just so darn cute,” said Stephanie Hagarty, a lifelong fair-goer and the incoming chairwoman of the fair advisory board. “It just appealed to everybody.”

The idea was to have fun while emphasizing the fair’s agricultural roots.

The veggie creatures who debut in a 2010 wall calendar were fashioned by county staff, members of the fair advisory board and their families.

Officials don’t want things to stop there. They want the public to make their own characters and spread fair buzz as a “viral marketing” campaign.

“Who hasn’t gotten in trouble for playing with their food or making a smiley face with their peas?” county parks director Tom Teigen said. “Now we’re telling people to play with their food. Not only play with it, film it. Give it a voice.”

The vegetable animals have been an ongoing feature for years at a fair booth where, contrary to countless generations of parental advice, children have been encouraged to play with food. Some children even put their creations on wheels and raced them, Hagarty said.

The concept of using produce came up this past fall to advertise the theme for the 2010 fair, “Home Grown Fun.”

“I thought it was very, very creative,” said Craig Ohm, vice chairman of the fair advisory board. “It’s basically trying to get back to the good old-fashioned home-grown fun that the fair’s supposed to be.”

Now heading into its 103rd year, the annual fair takes place in the late summer at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe. Some 715,000 people attended in 2009, a figure that was down from recent years. In 2010, it runs from Aug. 26 through Sept. 6.

In January or February, officials hope to meet with the public to ask for suggestions on how to improve the next fair, Teigen said. Topic are likely to include prices for tickets and parking, as well as what kinds of performers to book.

Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com.