Letter of the Day: Jockeying fairs

Jockeying fairs

EDITOR: Here's a suggestion for saving the Harvest Fair while still replacing it with an "adult" celebration of our county's fine wine, beer and food: Hold the Sonoma County Fair closer to harvest. This will doubtless entail some jockeying of the jockey schedules for the popular horse races. It's too late for 2013, but let's look to next year.

Like so many others (judging from your letters page), we were dismayed to learn of the transformation of the beloved Harvest Fair into another celebration of the county's agricultural "diversity." The announcement claimed that "most of the categories you normally entered" are already being offered by the Sonoma County Fair. That's true for home arts such as sewing and woodworking, but the amateur agriculture exhibits that fill the craft building are mostly still on the vine in mid-July. That's where the Harvest Fair got its name.

A celebration of Sonoma County's wine, beer and artisan food can appropriately be scheduled for any time of year. We hope that the fair board will give some serious thought to moving the Sonoma County Fair/Harvest Fair toward the end of the jockeys' racing schedule. Make everyone happy.

KATHIE MORGAN

Santa Rosa