What’s Yummy

Mapping the Fair by food booth

Whether you treat snack time as a treasure hunt or plan out your prospective meals months in advance, the Oregon Country Fair offers something for every taste, with a cross section of world cuisine from Afghan fare to Peruvian cuisine, Greek standbys and everything in between. With 66 food booths plus a handful of strolling vendors, OCF boasts myriad options for fairgoers who work up an appetite strolling the grounds or dancing to the beat at one of the many sound stages.  Continue reading 

Recycle Power

Dick Stewart embraces the spirit of recycling

Dick Stewart

For many years at the main stage area of the Oregon Country Fair, a sign that says “Dick Stewart Memorial Kiosk” has hung above a recycling stand. It’s a nice tribute, but a bit misleading — Dick Stewart is alive and well. Stewart says the sign hasn’t been a favorite of his wife’s. “She said, ‘It can’t be a memorial! Memorials are something for dead people, and you’re not dead!’” he explains. Continue reading 

Going to the Country

44th Annual Oregon Country Fair offers eclectic music mix

Oregon Country Fair time in Eugene: When the most urbane townies listen to Pavement at home, drink our drinks downtown, check our well-coiffed reflections and reconsider moving to Brooklyn. But for better or worse, OCF is a central part to loving life in the Eug. And amid all the fervor and hoopla surrounding Fair, it’s easy to forget the event is a venerable and respected (hippie-centric) music fest; this year the entertainment lineup for the 44th Annual OCF is full of some pleasant surprises, old friends and just enough ’60s revivalism to please the old-time Fair faithful. Continue reading 

Rock Medicine

White Bird’s medical expertise makes the Fair safe

Even in Utopia, shit happens. Take, for instance, the Oregon Country Fair, that vaunted Northwest gathering of boho spirits and fandango oglers, where the freak flag is flown as a testament to some netherworld normalcy. Even here, at peace-loving OCF, where the ’60s spirit of freedom, expression and communal OK-ness reigns in benevolent wooded anarchy, it might happen that you step on a bumblebee, sprain an ankle or suffer some kind of respiratory distress. It’s all fun and games until you forget your insulin. Continue reading 

A Tradition of Giving

From basic needs to camps for teens, the Fair is all about philanthropy

When you give to the Fair, the Fair gives back. For starters: The first Oregon Country Fair in 1969 was a fundraiser for the Eugene Alternative School. From its very beginning, the Fair has reached out to the Fern Ridge and Veneta areas, as well as the larger community of Lane County. And with its programs devoted to philanthropy, donating a combined total of about $50,000 every year, OCF and its impact extend beyond the famed three days of summer celebration. Continue reading 

This One’s for the Girls

Circus director adds a punch of girl power to the Fair

Darcy DuRuz created Girl Circus in 2001, an all-age, almost all-female circus that performs every year at the Oregon Country Fair. Featuring performers in a variety of abilities from ballet to aerial silk, Girl Circus offers  high-quality family entertainment. “I really wanted a show that features more girls and women,” DuRuz says. “There’s a lot of underused female talent.”  Continue reading 

Through the Looking Glass

Eyeing this weekend’s Oregon Country Fair

Nothing in this life is certain but death, taxes and the Oregon Country Fair. Here in Eugene, the Fair is part of our very atmosphere; it is the air we breathe. You can feel it coming weeks before it opens, wafting in the breeze like some hippie hurricane about to unleash its (not quite free) love on our stomping grounds. You can see it on the streets, with the increase of young seekers sporting ragged backpacks and dreadlocks and bare feet padding on broiling pavement. Continue reading