Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

The Oregon Country Fair is, in a word, colorful.

Oregon’s beloved summer festival is back this weekend, celebrating its 49th year of colorful reverie in the fields and forests of Veneta, just outside Eugene. As the gates opened Friday morning – the first of three straight days of the event – thousands flooded through, as an army of volunteers everywhere uttered the ubiquitous greeting, “happy fair.”

Started in 1969, the Oregon Country Fair is child of the counter culture movement, and while tie-dye shirts still abound (when shirts are worn), the event has clearly evolved over the last half-century.



If you start with the hippie aesthetic, throw in a New Age spiritual vibe, add a healthy dose of that unique Oregon whimsy and age it 50 years, you’ll come pretty close to the scene at the Oregon Country Fair. Its reputation for nudity and drug use isn’t exactly off-base, but the baby boomer crowd is all grown up now, and with their kids and grandkids in tow, it’s definitely become a family affair.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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It’s an appropriate evolution for the fair. So much of what makes the festival special – the drum circles, puppet parades, costumes and displays of art – offer a direct connection to the inner child within us all. It’s a place where the grownup ego can melt away, allowing fairgoers to dance freely, create without inhibition and revel in the whimsy of life.

The influx of youthful energy has kept the fair fresh, taking it firmly out of the counter culture and into the 21st century. Not that it changes the aesthetic very much. This is no Woodstock – the daycare center drives that point home – but it is still a place of crystals and tarot, yoga and meditation, leather loin cloths and bare, painted breasts.

In a lot of places that scene might be niche, but here in Oregon it's just part of the norm. The roughly 50,000 people who flock to the Oregon Country Fair every year have helped make that a reality.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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As the event approaches its 50th anniversary, it’s too easy to look back and see it as a holdover from the hippie generation. But look to the present or even the future, and there’s a clear place for the Oregon Country Fair in the modern age. It doesn’t need to prove it belongs – it’s been doing that all along.

The Oregon Country Fair will run from Friday, July 13 to Sunday, July 15, open every day from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Buy tickets online or at the fair.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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