Friday, July 17, 2009

Oregon Country Faire 2009

Welcome to the Oregon Country Fair's 40th birthday! I've been going to this art/craft/food/music/performance/PEOPLE festival on and off since I was seven. It's changed, it's grown, and it's still a place to dress up and play for a day, or all weekend.

We usually work and camp at the faire, which is so special and fun and magical at night! But this summer, we just came for the day, and kept it simple. We arrived as the gates opened and headed straight for the first performance of the day (one performance at one stage of many at the faire mind you) Nanda! I was about to link their website, but their videos do NOT give you a good sense of what they do. I laughed all the way through the show. They are (grown up) fair kids, who put together this amazing comedy, martial arts, acrobatics show. They perform full speed and slooooow mo with a live DJ full of sound effects and great music. LOVE them.


Finn, Max, and Quill enjoying Nanda. What do you think of the kids' hair? It's easy to have fun with color when you are naturally blonde.


My very very fav performing group: UMO! They do a different show each year. This one was about aliens who come to colonize earth, then take in the state of things. They mate with some earthlings at the fair (rather interactive show, I'll tell you....seen here are the "birthing team performing" while the aliens "podulate" in the background....) then leave the little offspring to oversee the clean up of the planet. It's sweet because the little ones are their own children wearing wings and looking so dear. I've been an UMO fan for 15 years or more! Now they have produced little ones old enough to walk on stilts and be in the show. The message of the piece was: the children are the ones who inherit this prescious planet, let's take better care.

Live performance is so important and powerful! Go see some live shows this summer.


A wild flock of roaming Sugar Beets on stilts. Don't make fun of the man in diapers, he's a BABY beet.


Quillan's face through a HUGE kaleidoscope made for many.


The big pink hippo!!! This is part of the Kinetic Sculpture race that we'll be attending this coming up Saturday (ooh! That's tomorrow!)


Family totem pole.


Me. I'm wearing Quillan's little set of horns with polkadots.......


Decorations near the tiny puppet theater. Everything at the faire is decorated with such love, and all that goodness is stored.... somewhere for the next year, since the faire site is in the woods and even underwater some of the year.

I love the puppet shows. I'm amazed and often moved by the performances they show each year.


The mysterious White Woman who is a statue until you put money in her bucket, then she rocks out and comes to a winding down new resting pose.

Finn and Quillan enjoy a lunch along the path. Ahhhh, good food and crazy costumed people watching-- that's half the fun at the faire!


Q listening carefully to the hum of the faire via this massive tube!


Max and I enjoyed a quiet dinner under the trees while the kids played a large game of chess against another team. They looked so happy, and decisive during the game. I found out later that they guy standing there was telling them what to do. I was so cross!! My children can conduct their own chess games- withOUT bossy grown ups. They were playing before he walked up. I didn't know he took over, or I would have said something. I guess I'm still cranky about it.




Quillan meets the dragon bench. Everything at the fair is beautifully made.


The end of the day found us in the long bus line back to town....... too long for the kids who somehow still had tons of energy. Maybe because the weather wasn't too hot that day. To keep them occupied, we gave them many many missions, "How many points are on that sculpture?"
"Which is your favorite painted bike in that group? Go look and craft a report upon your return!" They loved it.

Ah, another faire. One day wasn't enough. We'll be back to camp next year and be a bigger part of making the magic happen. But after the storm on Sunday, we were all glad we were NOT camping out this year!!!

1 comment:

Tiffany said...

OH!! This looks like so much fun!! I wish I could have been there!! And the family is so great looking, too! The eyes of those two boys... wow. :) I like Max's new lip piercing... but ouch. That had to hurt.

Did you make the outfit you were wearing? :)