Oregon Country Fair comes to town this weekend! Here's what to expect

Miranda Cyr, Register-Guard
Updated ·4 min read
A stilt walker navigates the crowds on opening day of the Oregon Country Fair 2022.
A stilt walker navigates the crowds on opening day of the Oregon Country Fair 2022.

The 54th annual Oregon Country Fair kicks off Friday.

The fair is touted as a celebration of art, music, earth and family that promises to transport attendees into a fairy-like village in the forest near Veneta, about 15 miles west of Eugene.

For the first time ever, the fair will feature all female-fronted bands on the main stage. Bands include Reb & the Good News, Glitterfox, Reva DeVito, Ashleigh Flynn & the Riveters, Celisse, The AM (Acoustic Minds), La Familia Gutierrez Son Jarocho, Stout, The Eights featuring Nicki Bluhum & Holly Bowling, Dead House, LaRhonda & the Steele Family Band, Anna Moss & the Nightshades, Sister Carol and Shook Twins.

Additional highlights of this year's event include four new food booths: Cheezy Weezy's gourmet grilled cheese, Makeda Ethiopian food, Dump City Dumplings and Go Giddy Pops dairy-free popsicles.

Here's everything you need to know about this year's event.

General info

The Oregon Country Fair will be July 7-9, running from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., daily. About 45,000 people attend over the three-day event.

Tickets are sold through TicketsWest.com.

Three-day passes are sold out, but single-day tickets were still available for all three days as of Wednesday morning. For Friday and Saturday, adult tickets are $45, seniors 65+ are $40 and children 12 and younger have free admission. On Sunday, ticket prices drop by five dollars.

Vendors

There are more than 85 food booths and carts offering food and drink, with options from fudge to seafood, Thai to Cajun cuisine and orange juice to kombucha.

More than 700 artisans will be selling their wares over the weekend, with crafts hand made or gathered by the sellers. Vendors offer jewelry, furniture, art, candles, crystals, masks and more. Services include massages, energy work and tarot card readings.

OCF has posted full lists of its food and vendors on its website.

Events and activities

OCF has 17 stages this year.

Performances range from spoken word to belly dancing to poetry to tightrope walkers to rock 'n' roll.

There are a number of parades throughout the day. For attendees who want to join a parade, they can visit the Dragon’s Lair before 1:45 p.m. to get painted and parade through the fair with Peachi the Dragon and her drummers.

A performer dressed as a lobster reaches for a soap bubble floating over the crowd as she joins the group Primordial Soup at the Oregon Country Fair for 2022.
A performer dressed as a lobster reaches for a soap bubble floating over the crowd as she joins the group Primordial Soup at the Oregon Country Fair for 2022.

Family-friendly

OCF prides itself on its kid-friendly atmosphere. On the Youth Stage, there are puppet shows, musical performances, jugglers and acrobats.

The fair also has checked-in, staff-supervised childcare space through the OCF Child Care Crew on Sesame Street, which is located just past the Main Stage near the Ritz Sauna.

Families can find a "kid's wonderland" on Wally's Way, located between the Caravan and the Front Porch, which offers family-friendly entertainment, an enchanted castle playground, a free library, hands-on crafting and play areas.

Other kid-friendly activities include face painting, costume making and hula hooping.

Wally’s Way is a family-friendly semi-supervised wonderland full of attractions and activities, a playground, a climbing structure, a free library and plenty of shade.

Family-only resting areas Mellow Space and Groover’s Grove feature diaper-changing areas and shady seating to rest and let the littles explore the sensory activities in a safe and fairly confined area. The Mellow Space is in Wally’s Way and Groover’s Grove is opposite the Ritz Sauna on the north end of Fair.

Other features

For the second year in a row, OCF will have an LGBTQ+ affinity space called the Rainbow Connection where queer groups and allies can gather in a safe, welcoming environment. The area offers workshops, exhibits and a place to interact with queer and trans people.

The Black Indigenous Person of Color Oasis is another safe space at the fair, intended for BIPOC attendees. A meetup schedule was posted by OCF:

  • 1 p.m. Friday BIPOC meetup at the Oasis.

  • 2 p.m. Saturday Black Joy meetup at the Dragon.

  • 3 p.m. Sunday Seeds of Integration at the Oasis.

Transportation and camping

Parking costs $15 per day, per vehicle. Parking can be paid for when buying tickets through TicketsWest or upon arrival at the fair. Carpooling is encouraged.

The bus is another option, and bus fare is free through Lane Transit District with an OCF ticket. LTD schedules are available at ltd.org or call (541) 687-5555. The last bus leaves the fair site at 7:30 p.m. daily.

There is no public camping at the fair site, but there are nearby options.

Neighboring campsites include Zumwalt Campground, Carefree Farms Campground, Darling Reunion Campground, GnomeWood Camp, EZ Camp, Hideaway Camp, Flying High, Sol Creek Farms, Shady Rest and The Other Side.

Visit the OCF website at oregoncountryfair.org/ for more information.

Miranda Cyr reports on education for The Register-Guard. You can contact her at mcyr@registerguard.com or find her on Twitter @mirandabcyr.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Oregon Country Fair comes to town this weekend! Here's what to expect