This child of the '60s ages gracefully.

Byline: Serena Markstrom The Register-Guard

Organizers like to think of the Oregon Country Fair as an organic being; living and growing as a human does.

Try going up to a human being and asking what's new this year. A couple more freckles? A few more gray hairs? A tattoo removed? We change slowly and not usually that dramatically in a year and the same is true for the fair.

"It's a living laboratory," general manager Leslie Scott said. "We want it to be a place where people can experiment. That's really what's happening here."

This year marks the 10-year anniversary of Chela Mela Meadow, a new "Green Ticket" program, the first installment of permanent solar energy fixtures, a large mural in the parking area, a Victorian bedroom to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love and a new Ambience Crew. But the fair will feel about the same as last year with one very happy exception:

Fewer mosquitoes.

Doug Green, a tour guide during Monday's media day and one of the "Bums" who runs the show, said in his 10 years with the fair, this year has the smallest number of mosquitoes dogging the set-up process, which made it much easier for crews to get things done. (`Bum" is just fair lingo for Back-up Manager. They have a funny way with words: It's part of the culture.)

The fair has grown up over the 38 years since it started and like anyone approaching 40, is still reflecting on its identity. One of the issues leadership is looking at is how to keep everyone who has been involved, involved but also bringing in new energy and ideas.

Many of those who have been with the fair for many years have their own children, but few have retired from their positions so there isn't much room for the new adults to take on more responsibility, organizers said.

Similarly, many entertainers, food vendors and crafters are almost grandfathered in and it's difficult for new feet to get in the door, Green explained.

"We really need to make space," he said.

Scott, who's been in the fair's top job for 16 years, said "generational linkage," or getting young people more involved, is one of the priorities fair leadership has picked up through a feedback process started three years ago called Vision Quest, and before then by a more casual system known as listening.

Of the 5,000 people who work at the fair, only six are paid and those six do not call the shots, Scott said. Green described Scott's role as that of a doula, or spiritual birthing coach, guiding the fair into life each year.

Ideas for change come from the workers and the public and this is an action year after gathering information through Vision Quest, Scott said.

Taking the green initiative

The public believes the fair should be a leader in environmental and ecological projects.

In addition to programs already in place, such as using durable flatware instead of plastics and lending a recycling crew to collect and sort waste, composting as much as possible, the fair has some new green ideas.

You'd likely miss it in the shuffle to get in the gate, but to the right of the main entrance, the fair's first permanent solar panels are in place and double as a shaded sitting area.

They are calling it Peach Power.

Between these panels and two mobile units on loan from EWEB and Oregon State University, the fair will likely give back as much energy as it uses during the event if the sun stays out, said Don Spiek, an EWEB representative manning a solar trailer Monday.

It's more efficient, they found, to feed solar energy generated during the fair back into EPUD's grid rather than powering smaller stations as mobile units have in the past, but the OSU trailer will be used at the registration area to provide a nicer environment than a noisy generator would, Scott noted.

Scott moved to Oregon from Florida with her then-husband and still good friend Tom Scott, who's a solar power expert.

All these years later, with green ideas becoming more mainstream the "hippies" can hardly hide their delight at their forward-thinking. They were right all along, as Leslie Scott points out in her introduction to this year's fair in its newspaper, Peach Pit.

The most prominent initiative this year is the voluntary "Green Ticket" program, for which fairgoers can pay an extra $1 for their ticket and choose one of three sustainability projects at the fair.

Green Ticket will move the fair "closer to becoming carbon neutral by funding new and expanded sustainability initiatives," a news release says.

Tour guide and Bum Green said about 20 percent of ticket buyers had opted into the new program by Monday, which he said he thinks is pretty good.

In the release Scott says giving people the three options was a more suitable option for the fair and its mission:

"Instead of merely buying carbon offsets going who-knows-where to offset who-knows-what, the fair's board of directors has prioritized reducing the event's actual production of carbon by funding and expanding existing fair projects in the areas of public transportation/biofuels, renewable energy and waste reduction."

The bus is the way to go

The bus is the way to go. This is one way the fair really encourages conformity. The fair has subsidized the Lane Transit District bus service from downtown and Valley River Center for years and this year has gone 40 percent green with the cooperation of LTD. Ten of the 23 shuttles will run on biofuel, in partnership with Sequential Biofuels.

This year, to tout green efforts, several local businesses sponsored bus banners. Businesses, such as the Springfield Creamery and Cafe Mam, purchased the banners at cost from LTD to promote the use of biofuel.

The banner artwork is done by Don Hitchcock and unlike traditional corporate sponsorship, the business names are not displayed prominently on the buses.

Hitchcock also painted the huge State Fair-commissioned mural that those of you who drive will see in Pirate's Cove; the southwest area of the grounds reserved for parking.

(Note: The VRC bus stop will also have a TicketWests sales outlet adjacent to the boarding area.)

Those with will call tickets can board the bus free with a TicketsWest confirmation letter, according to a news release from LTD.

Without a ticket, the price is $10 today and Sunday and $15 Saturday to ride the shuttle.

Bags will be checked before boarding LTD buses and drugs, alcohol, dogs, video cameras and glass containers won't make the journey, the release says. Also: no bicycles allowed on the bus.

17 stages of amusement

The entertainment schedule is too packed to mention it all and give it any justice. This year there are a whopping 17 stages with full three-day schedules.

Some of the stages offer a similar lineup each day, with artists performing at various times.

The Gypsy Caravan Stage, for example, hosts belly dance lessons and performances and a variety of music from the Middle East and Africa on all three days with house dancers and musicians working much of the time and many guests streaming in and out.

The Spirit Tower, the Front Porch and Rabbit Hole stages are for spoken word presentations. The W.C. Fields Stage offers circus-y shows.

A Peach Pit staff innovation has organized the concert schedule in an easier-to-read grid for each day. Stages that are close to each other on the fairgrounds appear that way on the timetable, too.

So even a first-timer without a map can sound smart by saying something like "Daredevil Vaudeville Palace is near the Main Stage and Shady Grove," and know what they're talking about.

Media coordinator Jenny Newtson said the people who have the toughest time at the fair are those who try to schedule every minute.

A better strategy, she said, is to allow a time buffer and know that many of the performances repeat on alternate days.

The Ambience Crew - new this year - will ensure people know there are stations to paint their own faces, put on costumes, be in a parade, create public art and more.

Sitting side-by-side on a picnic bench, Newtson and Scott said the kid-centered Chela Mela Meadow is a success story.

Before the area was established 10 years ago, Newtson wanted a draw for vendors in the outskirts of the fair, but Scott wanted to avoid the vendor/stage/vendor/stage pattern and create a non-commercial quiet space.

Chela Mela was the compromise. The music is acoustic and it's a space of relative calm compared to the sometimes overstimulating and crowded fair.

"It turned out to be the most amazing place ever," Newtson said. "You have a place to just be."

It's a wide open meadow where babies can crawl around "without a dust mask," Newtson joked, and people can throw Frisbees, hula hoop or watch shows at Monkey Palace.

"This is part of what's happening on the whole West Coast," Scott said. "People do not want to be passively entertained."

EVENT PREVIEW

39th annual

Oregon Country Fair

What: Music, theater, comedy, puppetry, dress up, face-painting, food, education, people watching, parades, crafts, activities for kids and general good-natured shenanigans 

When: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. today, Saturday and Sunday

Where: Oregon Country Fair grounds, west of Veneta on Highway 126

Tickets: Through TicketsWest outlet. None sold on site; $20 today; advanced tickets are $20 Saturday and $15 Sunday with prices going up $5 the day of the show; $40 for a three-day pass. Optional $1 additional charge to go toward environmental projects, OR "Green Ticket." Seniors and "alter-abled" people get a $5 discount.

On the Web: Visit www.registerguard.com /ticketfiles to hear music samples from many of this year's performers and visit www.oregoncountryfair.org for complete event information

Shuttles: LTD service to the fair site will begin at 10 a.m. each day with the last shuttle leaving at 7:30 p.m.

Carpooling: A nonaffiliated site, http://spaceshare .com/ocf, works with one major event at a time to give people who live near each other a way to find each other and ride together

Parking: $5 a day, per car