MONROE — Hundreds of stuffed animals were taken out of cardboard boxes. Vendors set up food booths. Students decorated barns with ribbons to show their cows.

Crews spent busy hours on Wednesday in Monroe, preparing for the today’s opening of the 99th annual Evergreen State Fair. The 12-day fair is expected to draw about 900,000 people to the fairgrounds.

In the administration building, fairgrounds workers issued an identification card to vendors one after another, organized paperwork and answered phone calls.

“Mayhem,” said Elizabeth Grant, the fair’s marketing director.

Grant said Wednesday that she not only saw, but also smelled the beginning of the fair. The smell of cardboard boxes, newly printed brochures and pamphlets dominated the administration building, letting staff know that the fair was about to begin. And there was a sense of many people working toward the same goal, Grant said.

“You can almost smell the hard work,” she said.

Grant wore toy bunny ears as she put together and stapled paperwork. This year, the fair’s theme is: “Be Somebunny! Hop to The Fair!”

On Friday, 2,000 toy bunny ears will be given to the public, Grant said. The purpose is to have a bunny hop with 2,000 people to set a Guinness world record, she said.

“The fair is about fun,” Mark Campbell, the fair manager, said.

Last year, the fair drew more than 901,000 people, Grant said. Asked about this year’s goal, Campbell said he doesn’t set goals based on numbers, but on how people would feel about the fair.

There will be traditional activities such as a petting farm, a pie-eating contest and pig races. The fair will also feature many animal, crop and craft exhibits that will let people interact with local farmers.

At the fair’s opening ceremony today, Annabelle and Grace Birkestol are scheduled to receive this year’s Snohomish County Centennial Farms Award. Their family has farmed in Stanwood for a century.

Debbie Lawrence of Monroe and her two children, Elliott, 9, and Lucy, 3, visited the fairgrounds Wednesday afternoon. Elliott and Lucy have waited a long time for the fair to start.

They picked up blackberries and sold them in their neighborhood to save money for the fair, their mother said.

Elliott and Lucy got an all-day ticket for carnival games with their hard-earned money. The family will probably come back to the fairgrounds next week, Lawrence said.

Elliott is ready for the carnival games.

“I always do all of them except for baby ones,” he said.

In Building 610, five members of Snohomish County 4-H and their parents were decorating a barn. The members — Emily Beebe, 13, and her sister Kelsey, 9, and Kathryn Dunham, 12, her sister Marika, 10, and brother Everett, 8 — plan to show their dairy cows at an exhibit during the fair.

“It’s a fun experience to talk to the public,” Emily said. “They come and ask us a lot of questions.”

Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.