PORT ANGELES — The Clallam County Fair is back.
After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the fair will be presented at the Clallam County Fairgrounds at 1608 W. 16th St., from Aug. 18-21, fair officials announced.
“We’re very excited that we are having a fair this year,” said Shari Ioffrida, fair manager, on Wednesday.
“We kept very busy” over the past two years, “but it was sad not to have the fair. I think a lot of people missed it, and all the staff missed it too.”
Average attendance over the four days of the annual fair has been about 30,000 in past years, Ioffrida said.
To celebrate the return, a special “welcome back” concert, free with fair admission, is planned that Friday at the fairgrounds, Ioffrida said. The act will be announced at a later date.
Three tribute bands — playing covers from Aerosmith, The Doors and Santana — and a demolition derby are scheduled.
“The carnival is booked. Vendors, merchants, entertainment, sponsors and the lot, are being sought and booked,” said Laurie Davies, fair board member and head of the 4H President Leaders Council.
“Clallam County 4H and Clallam County FFA departments are getting ready for the 2022 Clallam County Fair.”
The 4H- FFA Pacific Northwest Junior Livestock Auction will be live at this year’s county fair.
Said Davies in a press release: “2019 was left as the fair’s 100th fair and for 2020 would have been the 101-county fair with its theme ‘Blue Ribbon Dreams in Boots and Jeans.’ But 2020 and 2021 fairs did not happen, and the theme was left as words on the paper.”
“So let us introduce the 4H member who submitted the fair theme, Fern Knobel.”
Knobel is a 16-year-old junior at Port Angeles High School. She is in the 4H Club Pure Country with her 4H projects of rabbits and sheep.
She has been involved in 4H for six years. Active in many school activities, she particularly enjoys high school sailing, sponsored by the Port Angeles Yacht Club, Davies said.
She is in the Running Start program, and her future education plans are to attend the University of Washington and pursue veterinary medicine.
Knobel said she submitted “Blue Ribbon Dreams in Boots and Jeans” as the fair theme because she and her family wear boots and jeans at her family farm, and the blue ribbon goes along with what is earned and handed out at the Clallam County Fair.
Knobel will receive $100, fair passes and T-shirts for her theme.
Visitors to the fair this year will find extra hand-washing and automatic hand sanitizer stations available. Face masks will be available for those who want them, Ioffrida said.
For more about the fair, see clallam.net/Fair.
