Support for Oregon Art Beat is provided by Jordan Schnitzer and the Harold & Arlene Schnitzer Care Foundation Endowed Fund for Excellence... and OPB members and viewers like you.

Funding for arts and culture coverage is provided by... [ ♪♪♪ ] [ birds chirping ] NARRATOR: Once every year, this lush forest near Veneta, Oregon, goes through a magical transformation.

[ ♪♪♪ ] [ crowd clamoring ] [ music playing, horn blows ] [ woman whoops ] WOMAN: I see fairies, I see gnomes, I see incredible costuming.

The colors, the music, the food...

Feels like you stepped into a wonderland or something magical.

Happy fair!

I like the absolute disparity of the totally absurd and the totally profound.

You come and you'll get it.

You can't explain it to people.

MAN: Whatever happens in the real world as far as jobs and things like that, I have to be here in July.

[ chuckles ] This is a space beyond the bounds of everyday life.

This is the Oregon Country Fair.

WOMAN: Happy fair!

MAN: Happy fair!

[ people cheer, chattering indistinctly ] Welcome, welcome.

Welcome!

The Oregon Country Fair is one of the longest-running art and music festivals in the country.

Welcome to fair!

Thank you.

Welcome home!

Would you like an affirmation for your day?

MAN: I think you feel it the minute you get here.

There's a vibe about it that you just don't get anywhere else.

[ man whooping ] Happy lime, everybody!

[ playing folk tune ] It grew out of a 1960s vision of a better world, and the vision continues... [ guitar playing softly ] ...making space for people to dream, celebrate, create, and connect.

Every year we're reminded of this way of thinking, this way of accepting other people, being free to express yourself and free to learn new ideas.

Nearly 15,000 people show up for each of the fair's three days, wandering through 20 acres of forest and meadows along the Long Tom River, discovering delights around every corner... [ ♪♪♪ ] ...and maybe discovering something about themselves.

Oregon Country Fair is a place to put down the shadows and pick up the versions of yourself that you want to try on.

There's inspired art, exhilarating music, and a whole lot of interesting people.

Happy fair!

[ ♪♪♪ ] Roaming the paths of the fair, you're sure to encounter moments of wonder you never expected.

[ ♪♪♪ ] And as spontaneous as these moments seem, most of them are curated by the talented team of the ambiance crew.

[ playing upbeat folk tune ] WOMAN: I think that a lot of people don't know our wandering performers exist in sort of an official capacity, and that's kind of by design, because they're supposed to be surprising and spontaneous.

[ ♪♪♪ ] From the second the gates open, over a hundred performers are strolling the paths, spreading joy and delight.

[ horn honking ] We don't have a planned stage.

We don't have a planned time, because the point of ambiance is spontaneity, is surprise.

[ ♪♪♪ ] I want people to have that moment that makes them go, "I can't believe that happened," and for years to come they're like, "It's that fair that such and such happened."

One of the joys of the fair is music that calls to you through the trees as you stroll the paths.

[ playing African tune ] [ singing in African language ] My name is John Mambira.

I come from Zimbabwe, Southern Africa.

My band is called the John Mambira Band, yeah.

We want to stay traditional, so we call it, like, Zimbabwean traditional music, but then there's an element of some reggae in it and some Afro jazz elements in it as well.

I played at the Oregon Country Fair-- 2009 was my first year, and it was amazing.

It was a rainy day, but it turned out to be the most beautiful day I can actually appreciate, because everybody was out in the rain dancing and the energy so high, so that's how it actually made me fall in love with Eugene.

How you guys feeling?

It really inspired me to say, "I want to live in this kind of place one day."

So in 2015 I moved to Eugene.

When we play at the Oregon Country Fair, it's more like everybody's energy is high already, so I just kind of, like, receive a lot of, like, love.

I see people expressing themselves.

People just move, you know?

They just move the way they can express themselves, how the music connects with them... [ singing in African language ] ...because you can imagine a person like me singing in a different language, from Southern Africa.

It shows that dance connects people, you know, like, from all parts of the world.

It's really important that people get that rhythm and just move.

[ ♪♪♪ ] The fair has plenty of space to move... [ playing funk music ] ♪ Do it!

Come on, do it!

♪ ♪ Oh, yeah!

♪ ...playing lots of different kinds of music designed to make you dance.

[ ♪♪♪ ] You can move to your favorite band at open-air stages, learn some new steps at the dance pavilion, or jump into a wild dance party in the middle of the path.

And if you happen to be in the right place at the right time, you might be swept up in a parade.

[ marching band playing fanfare ] Twice a day, a 40-person marching band bursts out of nowhere.

They parade and play down the path, snaking their way through nearly every corner of the fair.

The name of the band is the Fighting Instruments of Karma Marching Chamber Band/Orchestra.

One of the reasons all of these amazing musicians converge on this place is because the audience is right here... [ fanfare continues ] ...and they have no idea that we're coming.

[ man yelling indistinctly ] WOMAN: You walk out on the path and they look at you like, "Oh, my God, oh, my God, what is going on?"

[ people cheering ] WOMAN: It feels like we're sharing something that humans get together and do only to make ourselves happy.

There's no other reason to do it, right?

A parade.

J-DUBBS: We see the eyes of the audience, and that's what we do.

We bring them joy and remind them that they could do this too.

Find your joy.

MAN: Yeah!

Meanwhile, further down the path, a band of clowns prepares to jump into the parade.

Risk of Change, we're a clown collective.

We do ambiance.

We're getting in carnival clowns today.

We have these pointy rainbow hats, the rainbow attire, and we're sort of just mirrors for other people to reflect on their joy and exuberance.

[ laughing, whooping ] We go out there and we just create magic moments that... you can't plan for this.

[ laughs ] [ all cheering ] [ cow bell banging rhythmically ] The band is coming!

[ band playing, crowd clamoring ] We love you, people!

Yay!

MAN: There will be thousands of people lining the path when we do the parade, and we'll get right in the faces of, like, 3- or 400 people.

[ band playing ] [ all whoop ] It's just beautiful to bring a little bit of crazy and some color and inspiration.

There's an expansive universe that can be incredible if you manifest it.

This troupe is like a manifesting troupe of outrageousness.

It reminds me that joy, revelry are things worth fighting for.

[ all whoop ] It's like a North Star.

That North Star has been shining for more than 50 years... [ marching band playing fanfare ] ...and it's a story that starts long before there even was a fair.

[ ♪♪♪ ] SUZI: So in the '60s, there's an explosion of hippies in the Bay Area, just too much, so they said, "Hey, let's leave San Francisco, go out to the country, go find some communes, go north, go anywhere," and people did.

People did leave, and they moved to Oregon.

[ ♪♪♪ ] The newspaper, it had a story that there were like maybe 2,000 hippies that had come to town.

And by the '70s they said at least 20,000 "freaks," as they called themselves, had moved to Eugene in early '71, '72.

MAN: You drove a van, you had long hair, smoked dope, and was against the Vietnam War.

And by being against the Vietnam War, now you're counterculture.

You better watch out, because the main system of America, you're against that.

MAN: We had people coming from all over, coming here to the universities wanting to groove and do things, and that whole movement that was coming on at that time, the place was exploding with LSD and pot and everything, and parties and music and all that.

It was all happening.

[ ♪♪♪ ] It took a while to realize that, yeah, this is a big movement.

This is a positive movement.

We'd been such a war culture, you know, from World War II and Vietnam, but there's another way to live and still be strong.

SUZI: The other thing going on was the natural-foods movement.

Eugene was a little food haven.

[ chuckles ] The whole natural-food movement was just burgeoning.

People were questioning things and questioning their food sources.

We were kind of inventing the concept of a health-food store.

SUZI: I think that number of people coming together, you had protests going on at the university, but also that sense of play and creativity and the feeling that there is a way we could live differently and take care of each other better.

I think all this really helped create the culture that helped give rise to the fair.

[ ♪♪♪ ] The first fair was November 1st and 2nd, 1969.

There's a school called Children's House, and the parents and the teachers from Children's House put on the fair to raise money to keep the school going.

It was kind of small.

People would sell bread or crafts that they had made.

And they had a Punch and Judy show for the kids.

[ children cheer ] It was a success.

They made enough money to keep the school going for a little longer, and you can imagine it was a joyous gathering.

The crafters that came together for the first few fairs were excited to see each other.

Morning, gentlemen.

They bartered, they shared ideas.

One of the original goals was to help people be able to make a living away from mainstream society.

I think that was a big part of the energy that kept the early fairs going.

It evolved from there into this miraculous gathering of like-minded folks.

[ ♪♪♪ ] KEN: You could dance, you could sing, you could make up stories, you could have groups that would perform plays.

You could do all that kind of stuff without being, you know, official.

REPORTER: It's year number eight for the Oregon Country Fair.

The organization's a little bit better, but many of the same people are here doing many of the same things they've done in the past.

It'll all be in full swing until Sunday night.

David Jackson, Eyewitness News, at the Oregon Country Fair.

SUZI: In 1981, the fair started thinking how they could buy the land.

They came up with a plan, and they asked the Keseys if they could get the Grateful Dead to play for a benefit concert on the fair site.

Ken Kesey was the celebrated author of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and the creator of the legendary Acid Tests with Jerry Garcia and The Grateful Dead.

CHUCK: He was my brother, and Garcia and Ken were friends.

I would step in the middle of it and ask the question, and they would say yes, but it was mostly because of the relationship with Ken.

[ ♪♪♪ ] MAN: Concert was great.

It was that classic family thing.

Uncle Ken backstage, he had a booth called the Underdogs Booth.

My brother-in-law was selling watermelons.

My mom was counting money backstage, thinking of course that it was going to be big enough for everybody to make a load of money.

SUZI: When the music started, the people at the entrances all came in to listen to the music and quit selling tickets.

[ ♪♪♪ ] At the end, it kind of broke even-ish.

We didn't make any money.

[ chuckles ] But the Grateful Dead donated to the fair $10,000 anyway to help them with the down payment on the land.

KIT: That was really the crossroads for the fair, whether they were going to continue or not.

The legacy of that show was the fact that the Country Fair was able to purchase the property.

WOMAN: What can I get you?

Oh, he wants a cookie-wich?

All right, my cookie-wich friend.

Yeah, I'm a cookie-wich guy.

But he wants something else.

Okay.

Raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, strawberry?

My name is Sheryl Kesey Thompson.

I'm a second generation creamery owner at Springfield Creamery, and we make Nancy's Yogurt and all the goodies that go along with it.

It's going to be a little hard.

Eat around the edges.

Enjoy.

I think we started our booth around 1970, '72, kind of in there.

My first memory is sitting on hay bales, because my Uncle Ken had brought live chickens to the fair to sell.

One chocolate cookie.

You have a meal.

Thank you.

My parents do not work at the booth anymore, but they come now to have dinner and socialize and see their friends that they've made at the fair.

So it is very social.

[ indistinct conversation ] [ ♪♪♪ ] It's always fun to come out.

You see so many old friends, a lot of people you only see kind of once a year.

Hey, how's it going?

So now there's this great legacy of the fair in that my mom was so involved, my dad always made the ice cream.

I can see the handoff to my kids.

It's nice to see torches be able to be passed.

So then we could just go and watch a circus with grandkids.

[ ♪♪♪ ] [ crowds cheering ] Of the 17 stages at the fair, four of them are dedicated to the art of Vaudeville: jugglers, acrobats, clowns, theater.

There's no other craft and music festival like it in the world.

[ crowd cheering, applauding ] To have 20, 25 Vaudeville-type acts is pretty unique, and the audiences are huge.

I mean, people are going crazy over this stuff.

[ music playing, crowd whooping ] Vaudeville is where you have a very specific skill, generally... Oh, how do you stop this thing?

...and you make something magical happen through that skill that most people can't do.

Ho, did you see that?

And some people would spend their whole lives honing this magical skill.

By the turn of the 20th century, there were hundreds of Vaudeville theaters across the country.

The rise of movie theaters killed Vaudeville.

By the 1930s, it was dead.

[ ♪♪♪ ] But the 1970s saw the birth of the new Vaudeville movement.

The fair gave these scrappy young street performers real stages and big audiences where they could pass the hat.

[ crowd cheering ] Early Fair Vaudevillians included Reverend Chumleigh, Artis the Spoonman, Tom Noddy, and the Flying Karamazov Brothers.

[ crowd cheering, applauding ] My name's Paul Magid, and I'm a member of the Flying Karamazov Brothers.

We've been around since 1973.

[ crowd whooping, whistling ] SUZI: They were all street performers to begin with.

They were all looking for ways to get together and perform together, perform more often, and the fair gave them a really good way to do that, and they got to know each other.

We just thrived here, and we really loved that sense of freedom and group of people all coming together to make a celebration.

[ indistinct chatter, child laughs ] MAN: Very nice.

[ crowd cheering ] When I first came here, I really loved how it was about changing the world into a better place.

I'm the feeder...

BOTH: And we're the feedees.

I still think that spirit is here.

Hup, hup, ho!

Welcome to the Country Fair Show.

[ crowd whistling, cheering ] My name is Harry Levine.

I have been a Mud Bay Juggler since 1995, so 30 years.

[ crowd cheering ] [ playing up-tempo music ] Mud Bay Jugglers are based in Olympia, Washington-- "magical, mystical Mud Bay" we call it.

We're an ensemble and try and do lots of physical comedy.

Oregon Country Fair is special because of the audiences.

They're so with you all the time.

[ crowd cheering, clapping to music ] You know, we do cruise ships and corporate stuff, and those crowds are not that much fun.

So here at Oregon Country Fair, best audiences that many of us get in our lives, in our careers.

[ crowd cheering, whistling ] The big finish is a four-person routine with Jules standing on Alan's shoulders and we're all juggling to frenetic music.

One, two, three!

[ playing up-tempo music ] The guy on the bottom can't really move that much, so the passes have to be precise.

And the guy on top can't really move that much because he'll fall off.

So it's a little challenging.

When it works, it's really cool.

[ all cheering ] What makes it special here at Oregon Country Fair is we are free to look how we want, act how we want as long as it's with respect, laugh, love all of it.

It's amazing.

What do you want to go see?

My name is Anthony Jackson.

I go by AJ, and I am currently serving as Oregon Country Fair President.

[ ♪♪♪ ] These are cool.

I walk around with my son since he was able to walk.

I'm going to get that one.

Okay, yours.

[ laughs ] Thank you.

My son's been coming here since he was six months old.

His biggest thing now though is, you know, I have this weird beard here, and he'll count how many times people stop me and say, "I like your beard."

[ laughing ] Thank you.

Thank you.

Walking around with friends is like a fairytale.

Around every corner is something new and bright that we want to stop and look at.

I really love these.

I like the bigger ones and the circles.

I know.

And look at the detail.

Oh, my goodness, yes.

Yes, they are.

Every year there is something different.

Someone has taken the time to build something really for us.

Kind of like to show off whatever that craft is.

[ varying echoing tones playing ] The sound bath, you walk in... [ low tone echoes ] I kind of feel it now.

...someone built that and took their time to love us back.

Ha, I feel it.

The Oregon Country Fair is mostly a white event.

In the west coast and in festivals, there is this unspoken language of who belongs, who doesn't belong, how you need to act, how quiet you need to be.

I didn't fit in any of those.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Have a great fair.

Yeah, happy fair.

Happy fair!

Happy fair!

We're still here.

We still choose to show up to fair every year, so there is a part of something that we resonate with.

We know what it is and we still choose to come.

Some of us, they stop.

They stop coming.

Um, they stop coming.

AJ: I don't pretend that this is a perfect place.

Like most communities, it sometimes mirrors the outside world.

That's one of the things that I'm most excited about as fair president, is how do we create a passion for people that look like me to come in and enjoy this the way I enjoy it?

[ ♪♪♪ ] Hi.

Hi.

Hi.

I'm Kai.

What's your name?

Darius.

Darius?

What's your name?

I'm a coordinator at the Oasis, which is a space in Xavanadu at the Oregon Country Fair that is an affinity space for the Black, Indigenous, and people of color.

Our motto this year is "Joy as Resistance," and by us just being here is a revolutionary act.

Since my years in Oregon, it is revolutionary in itself to be around just BIPOC individuals in one space enjoying themselves.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

The fair is bombastic.

[ chuckles ] And so it's nice to be able to relax and kind of just ground in a space of familiarity.

When someone walks into the Oasis, I would like them to have the feeling of belonging.

That's like exhaling, maybe taking off your shoes.

It feels like you made a new friend.

One, two, three, cheese!

Oh, I think I had the brim of my hat in it.

[ laughing ] That gives it character.

Oh, look at-- Thank you.

AJ: Communities like this don't just exist year after year without putting in some work, without growing.

And the message I would send to the rest of the world is that we're continuing to learn.

We're continuing to grow and learn.

We're not staying stagnant.

[ speaks indistinctly ] My hope for my son and his friends is that they'll be able to use their minds and creativity to bring something new to the fair and not be caught up struggling with issues of racism and oppression the way my generation has had to do.

Yeah, that's going to catch you.

[ playing swing tune ] People have been using their creativity to serve delicious food since the fair's very humble beginnings.

Back then, all you needed was a portable grill and a homemade sign.

Today there are more than 80 food booths serving nearly any kind of cuisine you can imagine.

MAN: Wow, thank you!

Order up.

Ding-ding!

[ whooping ] I got tofu!

And a lot of these booths have been here for decades.

Thank you.

A little bit of that.

Appreciate you.

All right.

Fresh round?

Yep.

Ingredients.

Perfect!

[ ♪♪♪ ] My name is Saman Harnsongkram.

I'm the owner of Bangkok Grill at Oregon Country Fair.

Have been in business for 39 years.

My first fair was 1985.

First year is pretty rough.

We don't really know what we are doing.

We don't even have a real structure for the booth, but we do what we can to adapt to it and then learn from there.

My own recipe for our pad Thai is totally different than anywhere else, and people like the way we make it.

MAN: Generous peanut sauce, please.

WOMAN: Something like that?

Something like that?

MAN: Yeah, thank you, thank you.

SAMAN: I think it's over a thousand people a day.

WOMAN: Two lines at Bangkok Grill!

Both sides are the same.

You get water, Dad?

Yeah, I'm gonna need more.

My name is Richard Harnsongkram, and I've been working with my father at the Bangkok Grill for over 22 years.

I first came to Oregon Country Fair when I was too young to remember... so it's kind of just been an ever-present memory.

[ ♪♪♪ ] There you go.

It feels so great to work with my father throughout so much of my life, creating something and continuing the legacy that he's built.

SAMAN: Well, I'm really happy that he's taking over, because at one time I thought about retiring, but Richard say that he would like to continue keeping the business going.

Thanks, Patrick.

This one's ready.

RICHARD: It's an honor of mine to be able to feed people and get such a positive response.

Thank you, thank you!

Enjoy.

Some of us affectionately refer to the Oregon Country Fair as a hippie New Year, and in a lot of ways can really reset my body, my mind, and my spirit and is a real positive thing.

[ drums beating rhythmically ] One of the groups that helps create that yearly reset is Calliope Circus.

[ tuning violin, people chattering, laughing ] This is my bustle.

[ ♪♪♪ ] [ laughing ] Okay, zip tie.

Calliope Circus is a troupe of people who like to defy reason and press the imagination... Everybody's costumes on now!

...and make people think and question what they're seeing.

You doing good?

We like to have an allegory or some sort of tale that we're telling.

Get this boat out of here.

Yeah, take that ship out.

This year we have a ship of fools and all of the souls who wound up on it.

Spread the love and here we go.

[ all cheer, whooping ] All of the characters chose which sort of fool or who they wanted to be on the ship of fools, and then we developed those characters.

Welcome, welcome!

Happy fair.

Happy fair!

SABRINA: Welcome to the Oregon Country Fair.

We've been expecting you!

Only madness from here.

We've got a cartographer and an oracle and a sea serpent and the wish clarifier, and we've got myself, the captain.

Ha-ha!

Hello, my loves!

You made it!

We try to engage in a very specific, personal way that creates a dialogue and creates a shift where suddenly they're going into the fair and they've had this precursor and they've had that taste of what's to come.

Wow!

You've officially joined the circus, yay!

SABRINA: People maybe push themselves out of the comfort zone a little bit, and that's the whole story, is getting people to dare to be here, just to be right here and experience the joy.

This year my crew is this exquisite group of 20- to 30-somethings.

So that's how Calliope Circus goes on generation after generation.

But before the clowns and the marching bands and the jugglers arrive, these 20 acres of land that hold the fair, they look very different.

[ ♪♪♪ ] [ birds chirping ] MAN: The land in the offseason is an extra thing of beauty to see.

It's empty, it's quiet.

MAN: We try to let it return to more of a wild area when we're not on the land.

We ask that the people that are inhabiting the booths take up their roof so the rain can reach the forest floor, pull up their floor so the light can hit the ground, so that the wildflowers bloom again.

It's almost a breath of fresh air when it rains in September and October because it washes everything, cleans everything off, and automatically then the lands start to regenerate.

The Long Tom will typically a couple times a year flood over the bank... be completely underwater, and it's very disorienting to canoe through a place that you're used to walking through and trying to figure out where you are.

It's a totally different scene for sure.

On-site caretakers work year round to maintain the land.

And this last winter we had the ice storm, which brought branches and stuff down everywhere.

And some booths got hit harder than others.

So we haven't checked this one yet.

We come out in late April and start to assess the booths.

We shake and bang and poke on 'em and find the rot and put red flagging tape, and then we make red tags and we put 'em on there.

Tree damage is the problem.

And the note says, "The wind began to howl and the booth began to fall."

And then we call the booth people and say, "You got a red tag."

[ laughs ] [ ♪♪♪ ] And then by June, booth people are out repairing their booths.

After a long winter, their booths have been lonely and they are happy to have them back.

[ laughs ] I believe that anyway.

I was told not to bring a level out here.

[ chuckles ] KIRK: We don't paint our booths, we don't go into the ground.

We want the natural, organic aesthetic, the funky, homemade booth aesthetic.

MARK: I think the ethos comes from the fair's beginning, thinking about recycling and thinking about low impact on the land.

[ ♪♪♪ ] KIRK: I kind of call it the Mother Earth News period.

We're really inspired to be homesteaders, to be on the land, and they brought a lot of that here in terms of recycling materials, using scraps and hand-me-downs... and that affected our aesthetic.

It affected our mindsets a lot.

This has been going on for 50 years, and it's a special place.

It has magic to it that I don't think you get very many places.

Some days you feel a little head in your hands, like, "How are we going to get through this one?"

All right, let's do it.

But then there's so many shoulders and so many creative minds that not just one person has to take it.

We can get together and we can brainstorm and we can solve.

The environment, the change in climate, you know, social changes... but we'll still be here.

Thousands of people show up on each of the hot sunny July days of the Country Fair... [ ♪♪♪ ] ...and the fair's water crew makes sure they stay hydrated.

Water cart coming through!

WOMAN: We have five different carts that push around these fireman-hose carts basically... Water cart coming through!

...and they hook up to these water boxes that are trinkled everywhere.

MAN: And latch.

Okay, we are set.

RIVER: And then they fill up at each booth.

WOMAN: Watch your toes.

We got a moving hose.

Big steps, big steps, thank you very much!

MAN: Water on.

Water on!

I like that I am helping people be hydrated and eat and, you know, cool down from the heat.

Seeing people enjoy all of the misters and fountains and eating the food, it just makes me so happy that I get to contribute in that important way.

Team water, and... water!

[ all whoop ] I also like seeing what everybody contributes to Country Fair, seeing all the other parts coming together.

That's the way to do it.

Yeah?

WOMAN: Recycle or die.

[ laughs ] Which brings us to the dedicated work of the recycling crew.

[ bottles jingling, cans rattling ] AMY: We collect and process refundables, landfill, compost, and recyclables.

[ ♪♪♪ ] The crew of nearly 200 volunteers works in shifts.

In the morning, we separate everything by hand to make sure we use the landfill as little as possible.

Broken glass!

And the afternoon shift, people are there to help you understand, like, yes, it does go in the compost and not the landfill barrel.

That cup is compostable.

I love rubbish!

This is made out of corn starch.

You've got a green stripe, compostable.

Looks like a plastic cup-- bamboozled!

You know, we live in a world of illusion.

This is compostable.

Don't put it over there.

It goes here.

AMY: All food booths are required to use compostable products and durable flatware.

And we fill two semi trailers with just the refundables alone.

In 2024, the fair generated about 23 tons of landfill... but made almost 30 tons of compost, all hand-sorted and processed on site.

The result is worth its weight in gold.

It's all about the life that's in the soil.

Look how steaming rich that is.

This is the gold.

This is the payoff.

This is what makes this worthwhile, because this is the soil that will grow the future of the fair.

[ ♪♪♪ ] AMY: You know, we work and we play together, and it becomes this really beautiful dance.

There's trucks and trailers pulling in and out and people sorting things by hand.

Lots of laughter, and it's a ruckus.

Yeah, we might be a bunch of hippies hanging out in the forest, but our volunteers, they walk their talk in a lot of ways.

[ ♪♪♪ ] SUZI: The reason the fair could buy the land so inexpensively was because it was flooded every year.

You couldn't build a house there.

You couldn't do other things with it.

MAN: Settlers coming into the country here saw this as land without value, like wasteland.

Native people looked at these places as gardens, as paradise, as overflowing with materials for, you know, our material culture and foods that sustained families and people.

Researchers discovered camas ovens in this area dated to over 4,000 years ago.

So we're at the Oregon Country Fair site in a part of the Long Tom Watershed.

That's kind of how I think of the landscapes around me, much as our ancestors did, by watershed.

Come springtime, this particular ground is full of camas.

The plants bloom, all the nutrients and all the vitamins and minerals are drawn back down into the bulbs.

They sort of rest for summer and then into fall.

MAN: And then the bulb would be harvested, dug from the ground with things called digging sticks.

They would collect a lot of the bulbs, clean 'em up, pull the outer layers off, and then cook them in these camas ovens for about three or four days.

The starches in them turn more sugary, so it becomes a little bit sweet.

It's very nutritious, of course.

It's also very delicious.

I was born in a time where the Siletz tribe was officially terminated as a recognized entity by the federal government.

[ ♪♪♪ ] There was this simultaneous privilege among the non-Native community, this feeling of privilege to-- You know, to play Indian.

DAVID: There's a part of hippie culture that thinks that they can take any culture from any part of the world and sort of make whatever they want of it.

WOMAN: Time was different.

I think it was in the beginning, "Yeah, let's spread love.

Let's spread acceptance.

Let's... have fun together."

DAVID: They just thought they were honoring people.

For a Native person to see that is a little -- It's not a little anything, but it's... You know, it's hurtful.

It's harmful, it's real harm.

The idea of taking from Native people-- taking land, taking resources, taking culture-- is all really the same thing.

These are sacred things.

They're...

They're not just something you can go do for an afternoon and then step away from.

It's like-- you don't just get to, like, always light the fire, you know, sometimes you gotta put the fire out.

We own our names, we own our stories, we own our songs, we own our art.

[ ♪♪♪ ] MARCY: I think there are certain colors that go together and certain stones that go together, and that's why I work in kind of this little mass of chaos here, which makes it more interesting.

It's like when you see stones on a beach, you just look around and you go, "Oh, there it is.

That's the one I want."

We asked Country Fair to provide us a market space for Native American artists and crafters.

One, because we were feeling a bit disenfranchised by being so separated from each other.

We would sometimes get certain comments that weren't welcoming.

We get a lot of stereotypes, that romanticized stereotype of what Natives are.

People want to know how they can become Indian.

It's... We get it all.

There have been Native American artists that have been selling at the fair probably as long as my family's been part of the fair, what, 30, 35 years.

We have this year coming seven crafters, people that do bead work, painting and graphic arts, jewelry.

Little pins... What they're supposed to be, because it almost looks teeth.

They're vampire teeth.

MARCY: We're hoping to start dispelling those stereotypes that people have, and that's one reason why being together in a group can show people that representation as who we really are.

I think what we bring is going to be really a tremendous thing for the fair.

I don't know a lot about bird symbology.

Yeah, so it's a red-tail hawk.

We don't just sell what we make, but we also bring our culture along with it.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

[ ♪♪♪ ] MARCY: I would like to see the fair be able to have some deeper conversations, deeper thought about equity and diversity, what that really means.

I see a new generation coming up, being able to have open ears and open understanding.

They might be uncomfortable, but they want to listen and not just say, "It's my way or the highway."

It's being able to honor the group and knowing how to work within those groups that, you know, I can see change happening.

[ ♪♪♪ ] MAN: I love the beauty and the experimentation of the crafts at the Oregon Country Fair.

You'll see things there you won't see anywhere else.

Everything you see in a booth is going to be high quality.

Right now we have about 260 craft booths at the fair.

In those 260 or so booths, we have about 540 crafters.

It's a juried fair, and the crafters have to go through a serious jury process to get in.

Every craft has to be handmade or hand-gathered.

So no factory-made products, no imported products.

It makes a big difference for the people who go to the fair for fun or to buy beautiful things to be able to walk up to a booth and see something beautiful and talk directly to the person who made it.

And the fact that it's a willow is...

It's so pretty.

WOMAN: It's fun to see their faces and how close they get to the furniture.

Oh, my God, the detail.

GIRL: Can I see after you?

Yeah.

Well, just when they go, "Wow, that's really cool."

It's like they get it.

It's amazing.

Look at that.

Some of the pieces are made with birch, some of them are made with poppies.

I pick up a stick, I look at it and I go, "Okay, that's an arm, that's a top."

They speak to you.

There it is.

[ ♪♪♪ ] When I make fairy furniture, I feel like I've been transported to a place in the woods, and I'm sitting on a little fairy chair... listening to the birds.

That's the ticket.

I also make garlands.

I use all gathered materials.

Last summer I went to pick straw flowers and woolly lamb's-ears, oats, sea lavender, lavender, feathers, all kinds of feathers.

People give me feathers.

It's not like I go out and pluck a chicken or something.

[ laughs ] The people who walk up and try on my garlands, they inspire me, because they look incredible on.

I think they can transform you into another world, and it's perfect at the Country Fair, because the Country Fair is another world.

[ laughs ] You might have to try that on.

I might have to try it.

You might have to try that on.

ELAINE: They know when they know-- when the right one fits their head that that's their garland.

That's what they envision for themselves, that they're a fairy or a goddess or a queen, you know?

I get so much happiness just watching them leave with the headpiece, and they just walk with a little bit lighter on their feet.

Thank you very much.

Your art is beautiful.

I think the intention of the fair is to show the world that people can come together and create this magic land.

It's kind of a timeless place.

Things slow down and... And you just-- You're in the woods, and it's just magical, period.

Part of that magic is music that draws you to the very center of the fair, the main stage.

♪ I want my people In the street ♪ ♪ All doing that Second line beat ♪ ♪ And I don't want no one To cry for me ♪ Come on, y'all!

The Oregon Country Fair is kind of like the most forgiving environment you could possibly play in.

I feel the most freedom here that I would feel playing any other gig.

[ crowd cheering ] Thank you for coming, everybody!

We're the California Honeydrops.

We love it here.

There's nothing more to say than we love it here.

It's clearly not a commercial enterprise.

I think it's probably the number one reason why it feels so laid back.

♪ Oh, yeah ♪ ♪ Y'all, come on!

♪ ♪ Oh, yeah, hey!

♪ You feel so much spaciousness, so you get to just do art, which is why we do it in the first place.

[ playing funk tune ] So this is kind of like a little place to dream, and that's how we use it as a band as well.

[ people whooping ] And I think the people that come feel that too.

So people will dance more and harder and crazier than you'll see other places, because it's that openness of spirit.

We love you!

We love you!

♪ We love you We love you ♪ ♪ We love you We love you ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah-ah-ah ♪ [ song ends, crowd cheering ] Good night, everybody!

Happy fair!

And fare thee well!

Thank you, Country Fair, we love you!

[ all cheering ] [ ♪♪♪ ] Over 50 years ago, this celebration began.

And for 50 years, people have been trying to find the words to describe it.

Oregon Country Fair is magical.

Colorful.

Beautiful.

Powerful.

Bliss.

Family.

One of a kind.

Si bella!

It's basically like hippie paradise.

Home.

It's a wonderland.

Rejuvenating.

Exuberance.

Fantastico!

Miraculous.

It's worth it.

It's an experience.

The happiest place on earth for me.

Freedom.

Weird.

Community.

Connectedness.

Happening.

Everything.

Fun.

[ all whoop ] And people keep coming back to celebrate, to dream, to meet new people and tell them, "Welcome home."

[ ♪♪♪ ] [ birds chirping ] [ ♪♪♪ ] Support for Oregon Art Beat is provided by Jordan Schnitzer and the Harold & Arlene Schnitzer Care Foundation Endowed Fund for Excellence... and OPB members and viewers like you.

Funding for arts and culture coverage is provided by...