Fair visitors worth $9 million

This weekend marks the 41st Oregon Country fair in Lane County, with over 10,000 attendees expected each day for three days.

Revelers bring almost $9 million to the local economy, based on conservative estimates by two University of Oregon economics students and their professor.

Ken Wallstrom [of Carefree Farms] has been using his property as one of several private campgrounds for fairgoers for two decades now. He’s expecting about 1,400 “guests” to start arriving Thursday, parking their rigs at $46 a pop for the weekend. Wallstrom and his family even feed the campers from a makeshift kitchen.

Some in this town of 5,000 might complain about the thousands of colorful folk who traipse through here every year, but Wallstrom’s story is just one that “demonstrates that we have very good relationships with our neighbors,” said Marcus Hinz, in his second year as the fair’s executive director.

Read more at The Register Guard.

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