O.C. Fair Wins 29 Achievement Awards in Contest

The Orange County Fair & Exposition Center has won 29 achievement awards from the Western Fairs Assn.

Fair officials will receive the awards next week at the association’s 74th annual convention in Palm Springs, said fair spokesperson Lynn Howes.

“We’re very excited about it,” Howes said. “We compete in this every year.”

The fair won top honors for photos of youths, acts and attractions, human interest and a “funny bones” series.

In the creative management division of the competition, Orange County won first place for an 18-foot-tall metal and plywood sign on the Youth in Motion building that silhouetted children running.

First place also was awarded in the same division for the Bug Chef attraction, which featured daily demonstrations about cooking with insects.

Orange County’s fair competed for the awards with 150 fairs in the Western U.S. and Canada, according to the Western Fairs Assn.

The county’s fair, which is run by a nine-member board of directors appointed by the governor, has a general manager and a 40-member staff working year-round on the exposition, Howes said.