Whidbey Island Fair slides to start with plenty of fun, sun on opening day

Published 4:42 pm Friday, August 7, 2015

The signs that the 91st Whidbey Island Fair has begun are noticeable well before any waft of fried food, blaring tunes of stage music or shrieks of ecstasy from rides.

Cars lined Camano Avenue/Langley Road, and the few paid parking lots were already smattered with cars before noon on the fair’s opening day on Thursday.

It was a day for fun in the sun, and there was plenty of both for the hundreds of people who poured through the gates. As always, the first thing greeting people once inside the Island County Fairgrounds was the main food court area. Also as always, its siren song of scent allured plenty of people around the lunchtime hours for burgers, gyros, hot dogs, elephant ears, ice cream and lemonade.

Spotted on several tables and in delicately balancing hands were the heaps of curly fries from the buffalo burger stand run by South Whidbey Assembly of God. The church runs the booth for the four-day fair and goes through hundreds of pounds of potatoes, beef and buffalo as a fundraiser for several ventures, including its annual Celebrate America July 3 fireworks festival, the Homeless Coalition and Good Cheer Food Bank.

Deano the Clown, whose off-stage name is Dean Petrich, delighted a horde of children in the late morning. While waiting for the rides to open at noon, 7-year-old Timothy Selmon of Langley laughed and giggled onstage with Deano.

“The rides are what he really wants to do,” said his grandmother, Mary Strom.

Emmy Felgar, 5, of Clinton was also picked to walk up on stage with the clown for an illusion that she was hovering in the air. She was whiling away time at the Midway Stage until more of the animals were exhibited and rides were opened. It was the first time the South Whidbey girl had gotten on stage in front of a few dozen people, despite being regular annual fair attendees, her mother said.

“I’m surprised she wanted to because she’s really shy around people,” she added.

Indeed, the dozen or so rides were a major draw for many people at the fair Thursday.

A pair of girls came from across the water from the Everett-Mill Creek area for the fair. Taryn Cook and Maddie Heiser, both 14, were delighted by one of the rides, a spinning, twirling device that left plenty of people a little dizzy after disembarking. Cook’s grandmother Judy Beeston lives in Freeland and said she grew up coming to Whidbey Island for the fair, but better recalled the dances at Bayview Hall. Coming to the fair is mostly an event for the children, she said, who gravitated toward rides such as the Gravitron, essentially a spinning centrifuge.

“We sometimes look at the animals, but not much,” she said.

Their advice for future fairgoers is to arrive early and on the first day, always a Thursday, when parking is still ample and the lines are short. Clearly fair-going professionals, she had packed some snacks, bottled water and even a small stool-size camping chair so that she could post up while her granddaughter and friend giddily jumped from ride to ride.

“We would do this again, we got the best parking spot,” she said.

Inside the Fiddle Faddle Barn, eight youngsters competed during a LEGO building contest. Four of them came from off the island, and one came from the more famous island of Manhattan, N.Y. Their parents said their attendance was a one-day, “guest appearance” only, a chance for them to experience some true, rural culture at the 103-year-old institution, such as the goat milking demonstration. It’s not every day that Tucker Corrigan and his folks get to see a goat being milked.

More than just ogling farm animals and playing with building blocks, they were lured by the fair food, and had already hit the scone stand by noon.

The adult play time was off to a strong, steady start at the beer garden area, a small sliver of tables and chairs within clear earshot of the main stage.

“As soon as we put the gates down, we had five people in here,” said Cortney Fredriksen.

With three more days of fair action ahead, people appeared poised to make the most of the forthcoming headlining day, Saturday, Aug. 8, when country music star Chance McKinney was to perform in the evening. Even so, murmurs of the Illusion of Elvis performance were heard, promising to keep people entertained on even an apparently locals-only-vibe opening day.