THE VALLEY FAIR WILL FINALLY BE HOOFING IT AGAIN LIVESTOCK: KIDS, THEIR ANIMALS TO RETURN TO SAUGUS SPEEDWAY.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem

Staff Writer

SAUGUS -- There'll be an oink oink here and a moo moo there.

Yessir, 4-H Club kids and their livestock are invited this year to show their barnyard wares for auction at the Valley Fair -- formerly the San Fernando Valley Fair -- scheduled for late June at the Saugus Speedway.

"There will be animals," said Erica Garcia of the Valley Fair. "They're invited this year; there's space for them."

Last year's event saw livestock shuttled for show to Hansen Dam in Lake View Terrace, some 20 miles away from the main fair site. That decision came from the board of the 51st District Agricultural Association, which runs the fair and cited unexpectedly high costs to house and water animals at the Saugus Speedway in Santa Clarita.

"Well, that's good news. I'm glad they decided not to ship our kids with their livestock off someplace else," said Debbie Bartels, community leader for the 4-H Club in Quartz Hill.

Bartels will send about eight young members of her chapter to the Valley Fair, where her daughter, now 17 and headed to beauty school, showed her sheep, pigs and goats for years.

Last year's decision to close the main fairgrounds to livestock added still more controversy to a fair seen as abandoning its roots in the San Fernando Valley.

Unable to find an appropriate site and the right price, the fair moved in 2002 to the Castaic Lake Recreation Area, riling San Fernando Valley supporters. It returned to the Valley -- to Hansen Dam -- the following year, but last year, in a dispute with the Los Angeles Parks and Recreation Department, the fair moved north again, this time to Saugus.

Then, just a month before fair time, the announcement came down that a favorite feature, the livestock events, wouldn't be held at Saugus because of the hefty $45,900 to accommodate farm animals. The cost was less than half that at the alternative location.

David Honda, president of the Valley Fair board, absorbed much of the criticism, but said Wednesday that his bigger battle is to save the integrity of the fair in an era when few seem to appreciate good ol' family fun.

"Yeah, we'll have animals and we're happy about it," Honda said. "We're an old-time fair, but like fairs all over the country, we're survivors. We're moving forward, but it's hard when you're an urban fair."

Honda said the deal with the Saugus Speedway isn't finalized, but is firm. It is slated for June 26-29. Still he hopes eventually to bring the fair home.

"I would never give up on the Valley," he said. "We're looking for a site, trying to reach out and that takes a lot of working together. We're kind of a homeless fair but we're trying."

The problem lies in reaching back to the Valley's agricultural roots in a place where farms, ranches and orchards have been transformed over a half-century into housing tracts, business parks and shopping centers. Decades ago, the fair's permanent home was the old Devonshire Downs, land owned by California State University, Northridge, and slated for housing.

"We have to figure out how do you deal with an urban fair?" Honda said. "It's sad. There are kids in grammar school who don't know where things come from.

"We have to reinvent ourselves, or we lose this part of our heritage."

For more information, go to thevalleyfair.org

pat.aidem(at)dailynews.com

661-257-5251

CAPTION(S):

map

Map:

San Fernando Valley Fair