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Okanogan County: Commissioners praise strong fair turnout, flag vendor, safety and capacity issues
Summary
Commissioners and fair staff said this year’s Okanogan County Fair drew a larger-than-usual crowd, with record livestock and poultry entries and robust auction proceeds; the board heard recommendations to tighten vendor rules, clarify FAC membership roles and set registration deadlines to manage capacity and safety.
The Okanogan County Board of Commissioners spent a large portion of its Sept. 10 meeting reviewing this year’s county fair, praising higher entries and auction results while flagging operational gaps that officials say must be fixed before next year.
Fair organizers reported about 2,200 more entries than last year and a chicken barn with more than 400 birds, along with a livestock auction that raised roughly $7,750 in livestock-only sales. One participant described several small-animal sales that produced unusually high per-pound prices, including a goat sold at an elevated per-pound rate and individual chickens that fetched several dollars apiece at auction.
Commissioners and FAC (Fair Advisory Committee) members said the event’s size revealed pinch points in vendor placement, traffic and vendor-concession oversight. Among the proposals discussed: instituting hard registration deadlines with a late fee to discourage last-minute signups, imposing entry caps on specific barns when space is constrained, and recruiting a part-time position to help the week prior to and the week after the fair to manage incoming entries and field logistics.
The board also heard multiple accounts of near-term safety and crowd-control issues: repositioned bleachers that reduced spectator sight lines, a food-court fall tied to valve placement, and an incident in which teenagers used toy or replica guns in ways that alarmed vendors and attendees. FAC members asked for clearer written vendor standards that explicitly ban weapons (including toys that could be confused for real firearms) and require uniform banner specifications so advertising is consistent and safe.
“The kids want to blow off steam and have fun, but we can’t have destruction of property or safety risks,” a FAC member said during the discussion. Commissioners agreed to work with fair staff to draft clearer vendor rules, improve signage and reconsider curfew and security staffing plans so the fair can remain family friendly without creating liability exposure.
Next steps the board discussed included formalizing changes to the FAC’s structure to reduce potential conflicts of interest (some FAC members are also vendors), testing crowd-control barricades, and adding written expectations for vendor conduct and vendor-site layout. No formal policy changes were adopted at the meeting; commissioners said staff would return with specific proposals in the months ahead.
