Fair theme ‘What happens in Tygh Vegas...’ draws fire

What started as a conversation between Fair Board Chair Zachary Harvey and Dufur resident Crystal Masterson on Facebook developed into a new committee, and then the best-attended fair board meeting in at least 10 years.

The fair board, which includes Harvey, Chris Schanno, Colleena Tenold-Sauter, Ken Polehn and Michael Hunt, picked the theme at its March 14 meeting and then posted it to the group’s Facebook page on March 27.

Two days later, Masterson created the Facebook group Wasco County Fair and 4-H Forum. Masterson and a group of primarily Dufur citizens, who have been involved in the fair and 4-H, then met with Harvey and Polehn on April 7 at Dufur City Hall.

The new group, tentatively called Care for Fair, also attended the fair board meeting April 11 at Clock Tower Ales. About 20 people attended, including the fair board.

“We knew the theme would be a little bit… different than what we’ve done in the past,” said Harvey, who pointed out he was born and raised in Tygh Valley and has three kids who attend the fair.

“Literally, for the last 100 years, I think, we’ve done barns and boots and belt buckles and country this and country that. Those are all fine and dandy but we thought we’d change it up a little bit. A lot of people interpreted it as gambling and who knows what, and sort of took it a trashy direction, which we were thinking more of a jokey, ha ha, this is Tygh Valley, farthest thing from Las Vegas in the world, sort of a tongue-in-cheek joke, more than anything.”

Harvey also noted that the theme has “zero effect on the fair, just like any over the last 60 years.”

Polehn liked the theme because it asked the question: What happens in Tygh Valley?

Harvey said he speaks to people in The Dalles weekly who have never been to Tygh Valley.

“I think it’s just the interpretation of it,” Masterson said. “I don’t mind Tygh Vegas. I just think it needs to be a little bit more maybe family friendly.”

Wasco County 4-H Leader Lynette Black also didn’t like the theme.

“The theme is not real positive for youth development,” she told the Chronicle. “It doesn’t sit well with family values. I’m waiting to see if they change it to something more family friendly.”

In the meantime, 4-H has come up with its own theme for the fair: “4-H Grows Here.”

Tenold-Sauter pointed out that theme too could be taken the wrong way.

“When I heard 4-H grows, I was like,What are they growing?’” she said.

Black and Masterson said they were willing to compromise and came up with “Tygh Vegas, the Happiest Fair in the Valley,” even though Black would prefer not to have Vegas in it at all. Neither wanted separate themes for the fair and 4-H.

Harvey said he didn’t understand why it mattered if there were two themes.

“It’s super annoying,” Masterson replied. “How about just that?”

Harvey pointed out at their last meeting, he challenged everyone to name the last three themes and besides the fair board, nobody could.

“Because they’re boring and sleepy and honestly, nobody cares,” Harvey said.

Another member of the Care for Fair group, Randi Wallace, said the theme was “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” She pointed to the carnival going downhill as another reason why she and others wanted to help.

“It’s time for us to work together in the community for the common good, which is to improve the fair and have support from the community so that we’re not the ugly stepchild of Wasco County,” Masterson said.

Schanno took umbrage with Masterson’s ‘ugly stepchild’ comment.

“It absolutely is,” Masterson said. “The fair is.”

Harvey noted the fair is the largest attended event in Wasco County at between 16,000 and 18,000 over four days and increasing each year.

“The Dalles does not support you,” Masterson said. “That’s what I’m getting at.”

Harvey said it would help if everyone had a positive attitude about the fair. Wasco County Commissioner Steve Kramer said Masterson, Wallace and the rest of the Care for Fair team would make a good marketing group.

“This is super positive. I agree,” Harvey said. “If you want to put a committee together that wants to do marketing and fundraising, we would love it because I know Chris, myself and I don’t think Ken really likes it. We’re not good at asking for money.

“We hit these local businesses that we have personally supported for years and get turned down for sponsorship deals. This marketing group is a good idea.

“We’re super excited about this,” he said. “It’s fantastic. Have a meeting in a couple weeks, really brainstorm some ideas, come up with some thoughts, different things you want to do, come to the next [fair board] meeting and we’ll start hammering out plans and make it happen.”

The fair board is expected to decide whether to keep or change the theme at its next meeting—Monday, May 9, at its office in Tygh Valley. The fair is scheduled for Aug. 18-21 at Hunt Park.

“I wasn’t trying to be negative,” Masterson said. “We need to be positive. We need to work together for the common goal so everyone is in agreement, everyone is happy.”