Ferndale Preps for 128th Annual Humboldt County Fair

Here in sunny Victorian Ferndale, local businesses are preparing for the 128th Annual Humboldt County Fair. 

“It’s a good amount of traffic. It’s an exciting traffic, because Ferndale is so fortunate to have the Humboldt County Fair literally just blocks from Main Street. And if you see on Main Street, if you take a walk, you’ll see a lot of the banners promoting the Humboldt County Fair as well. A fair is Americana, it’s tradition”, says John Kreitzer, owner of Golden Gait Mercantile. 

Golden Gait Mercantile has been in Ferndale for almost as long as the fair itself. 

“It can be a slow start to the day, but once fair ramps up, you’ll have people that will go to the fair, spend a few hours down there and then say, hey, you know, we don’t come down to Ferndale very often, so let’s go down main Street and check that out as well”, he said. 

Butterfat books on Main Street is here for their third year, and they buy and sell used and rare books.

“The house that the Nunnery took over had a whole room that was a library. And so we offer free pickup and packing if it’s a large collection. So it took us about a week to pack it all up and bring it all over here. It was hundreds of books”, says Jessica Bramwell, owner of Butterfat Books. 

Meanwhile at the Fairgrounds, Patch Fraga of Patchi’s Pastries is setting up shop. 

“We do have, like, a lot of changes that happen during the fair, especially now that the Main Street locations open every day from 9 to 9. So we’re going to be reducing hours there and increasing hours here (at the fairgrounds)”, he said. 

“And then we also do a full espresso bar. So we’re kind of a little spot for people to get off the midway, cool off a little bit and get out of the sun. And we’ve got indoor tables that are going to be open as well as outdoor tables. so we just try to be a little spot for some lower cost, if not free activities for people to just get out of the sun and off the craziness of the midway”, Fraga says. 

The Humboldt County fair starts Thursday August 21st and goes through Monday Labor September 2nd. 

Story by Tucker Caraway