My 2026 Oregon Country Fair review!

For previous years, go here.

Puddle of Fire: Booth 650 – photo and artwork by Dennis Sheppard: puddleoffire.net

OK, let’s get going!

Part one. I’ve been having a difficult time figuring out what to say about this year’s Fair. It was probably something like my 20th or 25th Fair. Most of the time when I go to the Fair, I’m on the inside either with a crew or a craft booth, but this year I was a significant other for an elder, and I drifted around the Fair like a bee pollinating and cross-pollinating and mentoring and being mentored, eating fruit; hearing lovely music and enjoying quick reunions with friends. I think I’ve reached the point with the Oregon Country Fair that I reached with Burning Man about 10 years ago, where Fair for me is not filled with a lot of new things but rather with the digestion of previous lessons learned and passing along knowledge and wisdom and stories amongst the people who I meet and the people who have met before.

For the last 10 years or so, I have tended to visit the Ritz every day (usually in the morning) and soak and sauna with friends and luxuriate in the beauty and the magic. This year I noticed that I wasn’t going there as frequently. Part of this has to do with my 2-year-long hope to electrify the Ritz. After having learned what I have in the last couple of years about wood smoke and its danger to our health, I’ve been on a mission to talk to everybody I come across who has any knowledge about electrification or who is involved in putting the Ritz together and trying to figure out if there’s a way that we can electrify the Ritz versus burning wood.

I got a mixed reaction this year to the question I kept raising, with some really wanting the tradition of burning wood to continue and others agreeing with me that electrifying the Ritz would be a way for us all to breathe in a lot less wood smoke. I believe it’s a healthier option, and I’ll keep raising the issue with those who will listen. Also, I noticed this year that I spent a lot less time at the main stage listening to the big acts, as it was hard to see and hear the music from great distances. Also, this year felt like the most crowded year I’ve ever attended the Fair. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday had crowds bigger than I have ever seen before.

I had a desire to see more Vaudeville this year, and I did see a couple of acts. Still, mostly I spent the fair talking to people in Community Village and Energy Park, where I found the most interactivity around the issues that I work on, such as clean air, clean water, and societal change.

I also spent a lot of time meandering around the outer Fair, visiting friends who live in camps outside the fair during the fair, where all the people who work in the various craft booths and on various crews live during the days of the fair. I arrived at the fair this year on a Wednesday and left on Monday.

Photo by Kerry O’Connor

Much music was played by me! I played on the paths, in a few booths, and at the Ritz. Mostly guitar – but I don’t own a piano (some day!) so any chance I get to play I jump at! Oh yeah, and I led a couple songs in the Circular sauna! I had an idea this year to print up some lyrics and laminate them and bring them into the Ritz, but I never got around to it.

In recent years, the nighttime music has been loud and amplified and goes on until the wee hours. On Saturday night going into Sunday, there is an event that starts at about 4:00 in the morning that happens near where I am camped in the Miss Piggy lot that has incredibly loud amplified techno music along with thousands of people blowing bubbles and frolicking in a nearby parking lot. Somehow I was able to sleep through this a little bit better than previous years, but still at about 6:30 in the morning I realized it was better to join than fight, and I walked through the crowd on my way to the Ritz to have a morning shower and sauna.

Part 2. One of the things I love to do at FAIR is pick up various stickers and business cards and things which helped me remember some of the joys that I had while I was there. Sometimes this also leads to helping out various parts of the fair down the road. I should also mention that I put out newsletters on a variety of topics. If you’re interested in learning more, click here. You can check out anytime you like, and you can also leave. 🙂

Here, in no particular order, are the things that I picked up, and I’ll say a little bit about those that need some description.

• Seems like a lot of work right now; see what you can do with this picture below, but 1st, this Year’s 50th Anniversary Ritz Coin!
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• I think more importantly, I’m going to share with you some of the notes that I took during the weekend. If you have any questions about the picture above or want any of these items mailed to you feel free to reach out to me – Albert@Albertideation.com

On Thursday, I had an incredible conversation with Barbara from Eugene who reads tarot @ The Mothership. One of the concepts that we discussed was coiling. Gathering energy. We also discussed the issue of having big problems to solve and how to approach them.

On Friday morning, I got lucky enough to hear Sharanam singing and talking and playing at Chez Rays. One of my favorite parts of the Beloved Festival was hearing Sharanam offering his music and insights every morning.

Recently I got to participate in an electrification fair in Portland, Oregon. The woman who was talking about gas stoves mentioned that anytime you use one, you should use the air vent above the stove and also use the back burners. I had an idea for an invention that would turn on the fan automatically anytime you’re using a gas burner.

Someone suggested I talk to Solar Johnny regarding electrifying the Ritz.

On Saturday, I had a fun conversation with my friend Susan about creating a setlist for your funeral. We were enjoying time at Piano Lounge, which is one of the nicest places to hang out at the fair.

I heard someone sharing the Desiderata, a poem that my father had framed and placed above him in the divan that he would sit at at our family cabin. That was a nice moment! They also mentioned 2 books: Dust if you Must and Always Wear Sunscreen

I realized I am a roving me and thought about the song Spencer the Rover Contented.

I spent a lot of time playing chess with people young and old out in front of White Bird (The medical folks at Fair). I think I won 6, lost two, and drew one. I had a lot of fun talking to young people and their parents about chess and life. I also had one really memorable stretching session in the yoga flow zone on Saturday night with a couple of young people who have recently moved to Portland from Central California. They’re very worried about the future of our planet and their own futures, and we had a good long talk about life, the universe and everything. This took place in Xavanadu – Probably the area I spent the most time in overall. They are also responsible for the passports in the picture above.

I got some altered advice at Altered States: that at the end of each day, I should review what is good that I’ve done and that I remember I am a part of the Fair.

I talked for quite a long time to a fellow named Jer who’s a professor at Oregon University. He’s part of the media booth in Community Village and talked my ear off about various books and sociology. He suggested a book, Red, Green and Blue, and a book series by Kim Stanley Robinson. I also learned about infrasound noise pollution and Sue Burke, a science fiction author. I also took a workshop right nearby which talked about ecobiosis, Symbiotopia, and youtopia. And another book recommendation: The Ministry of the Future.
And Disclosure Day by Philip K Dick. Also Becky Chambers: A Psalm for the Wild.

One of the books that Jer mentioned that he was really excited about is called The Democratic Surround by Fred Turner.

Also in Community Village, I had a chiropractic session with Michael. He mentioned a couple of stretches I can do for my lower back as well. I then took a workshop in the back yurt of Community Village on housing, and one of the questions was why owning a home is the goal. Who does that benefit, and what is the end goal? The people leading this talk were from a small co-housing-like community in Eugene, OR, which is featured in the picture above.

I had the idea of using the Peach Pit (The printed Fair guide) (Above image map) as the basis for a game like OCF Battleship (or Pokémon Go). As you can see in this image, there are an X- and Y-axis which could be used to make points on a map. This is a free idea; feel free to run with it if you like.

Bandit on the Run. I only got to hear one of their songs, but I’m excited to learn about them.

So that’s some of my country fair this year. You may be able to tell from the tone of this article that I have been struggling with my time at the fair this year. I didn’t feel very plugged into the fair, and yet I’m probably more connected than many people at the fair to lots of other people. I wore my name tag again this year and had a lot of fun connecting with people who know me and new people. I highly recommend giving this a try if you walk the 8.

This is what you get when you go to festivals for 20 years in the Pacific Northwest – lots of connections and history with the people who put these events on. I am so reverent and over the moon for everyone who puts this event together each year. It is a labor of love and takes thousands and thousands of volunteer hours. Every little piece of magic is something that somebody thought up, and there are always new things along the path to titillate and excite young and old. If you’ve never been to Oregon Country Fair, I highly recommend going and seeing what happens in the woods near Veneta, OR.

I’ll leave it there for now, and I’ll probably add in some more thoughts and pics as I go along because I’ve had a lot of thoughts about this year’s fair. Down below, you can see some of my feedback on the fair and how you can submit feedback if you have any. Also, the music this year from the mainstage is captured very well by the production team in three long YouTube videos. Enjoy the music, and I’ll see you on the 8.

Albert

And thanks to my campmates for putting up with me!

Here’s my feedback to the fair right when I returned.

2026 OCF Feedback Form: 

Feedback 1:
Hi there, thanks for asking. I think one of my highest interests is seeing the Ritz electrified. I’ve come away from the weekend with a very sore throat. That is often from singing, but wood smoke is just not really our friend, and we should be doing everything in our power to transition the Ritz from a wood-fired entity to an electrified one. I’ve been doing some research on this, and I will write up an article with my findings. But I would really like it if someone more closely associated with the Ritz would encourage this discussion internally.

Feedback 2:
I love the additional seating this year – thank you for that.

Feedback 3:
I love the additional living flowers this year

Feedback 4:

It would be great if there were a way to turn the noise down at night a little bit. I understand that people want to rock and roll into the night, but having really loud music in some of the camping areas until 2 or 3 in the morning makes it hard for people who have to work the next day. This includes the big bubble stay-up-all-night thing that happens out by the registration booth on Saturday night into Sunday morning. That really needs volume control.

Feedback 5:
I loved all the additional spritzers that were around the fair.

Feedback 6:
I thought it was great that you tried to add more shade around the mainstage area, but instead of using whatever that fabric was that was over the tents, it really would make more sense to use something like aluminet or maybe the same fabric that is used by the people who put up the tents all around the fair (Intents), which really provide complete shade. That orange and red shade cloth didn’t really do as much as it could have to protect people.

Feedback 7:
The Vancouver Folk Festival has had a system for years where they have returnable plates that are handed out by every food vendor. This cuts down on the amount of waste tremendously. I can say more about this one if you want, or someone could just look into what the Vancouver Folk Festival is doing. But more and more food vendors are moving to systems that don’t include trash. What they do in Vancouver is that young people staff these booths that take your deposit and give it back to you. The Beloved Festival did that for years. Also, what’s nice is that you can buy one of the bowls that you eat from all weekend long, and each time you turn in the bowl, you can either get a token back for another bowl, or you can keep the bowl and take it home with you as a souvenir. This is also a way to raise revenue and maybe to help pay for the program. (A place to wash the bowls is needed)

Feedback 8:
I love that there seem to be fewer Gators moving through the fair during the day this year. I also appreciate any time you switch from gas-powered to electric-powered vehicles at the fair.

Feedback 9:
I think it would make sense to have an annual education program for people driving vehicles at the fair, especially gas-powered ones, reminding them that they need to be turned off when they’re not in use. I saw many trucks that were just sitting around idling for long periods of time when people weren’t going anywhere. This is a waste of gas ($) and also just increases the amount of pollution in the small area where there are thousands of people.

Feedback 10+:
I thought the fair really had some nice improvements this year, and I really appreciate how much effort it takes to put this on every year. I am very reverent towards everyone who is involved, and I mean this feedback with the best intentions and an open heart. I’m happy to talk to anyone about any of these things, and I appreciate you for listening.

Take care, fare thee well, Albert

Feedback 11 (There needs to be an 11th field on this spreadsheet.)

12. Maybe one thing we could do is get some purple air quality monitors out onto the site and measure the air quality before, during, and after the fair.

Music to unpack by!

OCF Mainstage 2026! Thanks, Production team & musicians & stage people! and MC’s! and Audience! – This is all the music from the main and also stretches back to previous years

Did I really see this?

When someone else writes a great review this year. Hurrah! Thanks, Joshua Samuel Brown!!!

If you want to work in a food booth at Oregon Country Fair, click here to learn more.

If you want to apply to play music or vend at the fair, here is the application link.

Here is the biggest Facebook group having to do with the Fair. There are lots of other smaller Facebook groups that have to do with various aspects of the fair. If you’re curious about any of this, feel free to reach out to me.

Booth 350!

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7.31.26