Castle Rock Fair

On the Thursday evening of fair week a parade steps off at 6:30 from the Castle Rock Elementary School parking lot. It turns onto Huntington Avenue toward Exit 49, then left onto Cowlitz, left on 2nd Avenue, left onto C Street and right onto Front Avenue, and it disbands at the middle school. Entries line up and are judged in the school lot beforehand. Nobody throws candy from the floats. Volunteers walk alongside and hand it to the children in the crowd so that none of them run into the street. Every animal entry brings its own clean-up crew. In 2018 Bridget Woodruff rode the “60 Years of Fun at the Fair” float dressed to represent the 1960s.

The fairgrounds gates open at 6 that evening and the exhibits at 7. From Huntington the way runs onto A Street, over the bridge, and left onto Fair Lane, which ends at the fair entrance.

Three days on Fair Lane

The fair describes itself as “a small community fair that strongly supports and encourages our local youth.” The 2026 fair ran July 16 to 18 by its own schedule. The state fair association’s 2026 list gave the dates as July 16 to 19. A fair board runs it: Gary Boshart, president; Janet Prince, vice president; Barb Rider, treasurer; Teresa Proudfit, secretary; and ten members.

The exhibit halls hold youth and open-class still-life work alongside the animal exhibits. Showmanship classes run through the weekend. Rabbits and dogs show Friday morning, the dogs weather permitting, and swine follow at 6 that evening. Goats show Saturday morning, cats at 11, poultry at 11:30, sheep at 2 and dairy and beef cattle at 4. A 4-H horse show starts at 8:30 on Friday and Saturday mornings.

The quarter arcade is the fair’s “old fashioned state fair” piece. Tickets cost three for a dollar, and volunteers man the games. It is open Thursday night from 7:15 to 8:30 and Friday and Saturday afternoons from 2 to 5. A Castle Rock mother told The Daily News in 2020 that her daughter usually won a goldfish there. An archery range is open Thursday evening and Friday and Saturday afternoons. On Friday the magician Mr. Twister performs at 1 and 4, with balloon twisting between. Saturday brings a cornhole tournament in the morning and a Wet Money Scramble at 1. A lip sync contest signs up at 2 and pays $100, $75 and $50. Fair-food vendors work the grounds. The evening stage had Funk Junkies on Thursday, Blue Blazes on Friday and Copper Ridge on Saturday.

Friday morning belongs to the BBQ Bash, which was the second annual 4-H and FFA cook-off in 2026. Teams of up to five come from a single FFA chapter or 4-H club. Each team gets two racks of pork spare ribs and cooks them on its own electric pellet grill inside a roped-off area about 15 feet square. No adults may enter the cooking area once the contest starts. The one exception is that younger 4-H members may have an adult help with the grill. The meat must reach 145 degrees. Each team turns in five ribs, cut apart and without garnish, by 2:00.

Adults paid $3 on Thursday and $4 on Friday and Saturday. Seniors got in free on Friday from 10 to 2. The fair closes at 7:30 on Saturday. At 8 the animals are hauled out, once the tables, benches, bleachers and garbage cans have been put away.

Two summers without a fair

In July 2016 the twins Paige and Rylee Ogden, 10 years old, each showed a hereford at the fair. On July 19, 2019, five-year-old Zandaea Cole showed fair-goers her buff orpington chicken, Vanilla.

The next summer there was no fair. On May 8, 2020, The Daily News reported that the coronavirus had closed what it called “Washington’s third-longest running fair” just as it would have entered its 62nd year. The board’s Facebook post cited COVID-19 and the phases of the governor’s reopening plan.

Sherisha Aylesworth, a Castle Rock resident, would have helped manage the poultry barn. “This is really a beginning community fair for the kids. There are a lot of littles that get their first toe in the water there,” she told the paper. “It’s a huge loss. It’s really a community center. ... It’s one of the few parades we have in town.” She noted that the fairgrounds equipment is mostly wooden and harder to sanitize. She also said the event draws senior citizens from the nursing home to watch the parade, along with long-time volunteers whose age put them at high risk. “I think that the Castle Rock Fair Board is making the right decision,” she said. “I feel for the kids more than anything.”

In May 2021 the board called the fair off again. Boshart said the volunteer organizers could not meet the state’s requirements for fairs. He did not see how they could keep 4-H kids six feet apart with animals like “pigs running every which way.” He did not want to cap the gate either. “You can’t say, ‘You’re No. 800 today, you can’t come in,’” he said. “That would be terrible.” A post on the fair’s Facebook page said that if the mandates were not met, “the potential fines would wipe out our nonprofit.”

The Ogden twins were 15 that spring. They had shown pigs and then cattle in 4-H since kindergarten. They were in the family barn brushing a heifer named Marley and a black angus steer named Stout, and they were looking to sell their cattle elsewhere. At the fair they usually camped on the grounds, held cookouts with their 4-H club, and competed to see who could win the most goldfish at the games. “It was sad missing out,” Rylee said of 2020. “We work with animals all year so it was definitely a bummer.”

Jennifer Leach of Cowlitz County 4-H counted 58 members in six Castle Rock clubs. “That’s the hardest thing — when fairs are canceled kids don’t get to see each other,” she said. “But I understand why Castle Rock did what they did, to make sure the community is safe.”

The gates open again in 2022

The fair returned July 14 to 16, 2022. The gates opened at 6 p.m. and the parade went through downtown half an hour later. Boshart said there would be a balloon artist on the second and third days. “Our volunteers put on a fair for the kids,” he said. “4-H and FFA kids are excited to show their animals, photos, woodworking, metal work, flowers, and more.”