Sonoma County Fair celebrates its agricultural roots

Mosey on down to the Sonoma County Fair for a western-flavored experience featuring a cattle drive through downtown Santa Rosa, a saloon in the Hall of Flowers, gold panning, horse racing and a rodeo.

The 83rd edition of Sonoma County’s midsummer attraction, which opens Thursday for an 11-day run, also offers a chance to eat your way around the fairgrounds for $2 a taste, a 100-foot tall Ferris wheel in the carnival midway, live music all afternoon and into the evening, and a host of discounts.

“We have a little bit of everything for everyone,” said Rob Muelrath, fair board president. “Hopefully we’ll see a lot of folks bringing themselves back to the western days of Sonoma County.”

Fair officials are hoping for a rebound from last year’s 8% dip in paid attendance, possibly related to residents moving away in the wake of 2017 wildfires that destroyed 5,300 homes in the county.

Paid admissions at last year’s fair totaled 129,778, compared with 141,024 in 2017, the year the fair cut four days off its 15-day schedule, significantly lowering attendance. In 2014, a 16-day fair attracted 183,446 paying patrons.

“We’re hoping we’ll start to see an uptick this year,” said Kaitlyn Findley-Thorn, the fair’s chief operating officer. “We are always looking at those numbers.”

Proceeds from the junior livestock auction, which many in the farm community consider the fair’s main event, have risen steadily from nearly $1.3 million in 2014 to almost $1.7 million last year, even as the number of animals sold has dropped from as high as 820 in 2015 to only 694 last year.

4-H and National FFA Organization youths and teens will sell steers, goats, lambs, hogs and rabbits they have raised at the auction on Saturday.

The fair’s theme - “Back to Our Roots in Cowboy Boots” - was picked to recall the time before the high-tech boom, manufacturing and commuting to Bay Area jobs transformed the county.

“It’s not so long ago that Sonoma County was primarily agriculture,” said Muelrath, who was raised on a Santa Rosa area dairy ranch founded by his grandfather.

The fair’s signature western event will be a cattle drive, with wranglers guiding 30 head of cattle along city streets from Old Courthouse Square to the county fairgrounds starting at 10 a.m. Sunday and kicking off Farmer’s Day, a fair staple.

The last cattle drive was in 2011, when the fair celebrated its 75th anniversary.

Farmer’s Day events will be held from 1-3 p.m. in the Chris Beck Arena.

One change in the series of events will be the decades-old pig scramble, which will be replaced with a watermelon scramble. Instead of chasing piglets, kids will race around an obstacle course with vegetable oil-slicked melons.

Another new feature is the saloon - serving wine, beer and cocktails - built into the Hall of Flowers, a longtime favorite attraction and one of the coolest places to beat the heat, with sunny days and temperatures in the high 80s forecast for the fair’s first week.

“Country Garden of Song” is the hall’s theme, with each garden including a flower mentioned in a country song, such as “Orange Blossom Special” and “San Antonio Rose.”

Muelrath said it’s “one of the best Hall of Flowers I’ve seen in at least a decade.”

The Hall of Flowers Preview Party takes place from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday and features food and wine. Tickets cost $35 a person. All proceeds go to providing scholarships for local ag youth.

Fanciers of fair food get a new opportunity with the “$2 Taste of the Fair” from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 6, when 18 vendors will sell two-buck small plates, including corn dogs, fudge, funnel cake, chicken tacos, cheese pizza, garlic and Greek fries, churros and a zucchini stick.

Horse racing is free with fair admission Thursday through Sunday, and Aug. 8-11.

Gold panning at a trough holding real gold ore is among the free features, including pig races, a magic show, comedy western show, treasure hunt, draft horse wagon rides and free cake and ice cream.

Fairgoers yearning for more action can pay to see monster trucks, a destruction derby and a professional cowboys rodeo.