Chelan County Fair brings agriculture, tradition and community together

CASHMERE — Somewhere inside the Chelan County Fair, a prize-winning chicken sculpture sat on a toilet smoking a cigarette.

Not far away were enormous pumpkins, carefully arranged peppers, rows of apples, handmade quilts and a painstakingly constructed model of a French cathedral. In the livestock barns, children leaned over fences toward animals they had spent months raising. Outside, carnival rides spun beneath lights that grew brighter as Friday evening turned dark.

By Saturday, the fairgrounds had filled again with cowboy hats, families, food vendors, entertainers and even political candidates, while children climbed onto tractors and crowds gathered around demonstrations before another evening of music, carnival lights and rodeo.

For four days, the Chelan County Fair turned the county's agriculture, handiwork, traditions and recreation into something visitors could walk through, touch, taste and watch.

The fair ran Sept. 10-13 at the Chelan County Expo Center in Cashmere, bringing together livestock exhibitors, 4-H and FFA members, home and garden entries, vendors, carnival attractions, live entertainment and professional rodeo.

But most of what makes a county fair recognizable happens between the scheduled events.

A small hand reached through a livestock fence Friday to touch the wet nose of a pig. Children crowded carnival games and shrieked around the turns of a small dragon coaster. Families wandered rows of animals and exhibits before spilling onto a midway glowing with signs, stuffed-animal prizes and spinning lights.

Inside the exhibit buildings, ribbons marked the results of quieter competitions.

Vegetables and fruit sat in orderly rows beside entry cards. A massive pale pumpkin earned a blue ribbon for Best of Class. Quilts hung overhead. Artwork ranged from traditional crafts to elaborate constructions, including a Lego recreation of Notre-Dame.

And then there was the chicken.

The handmade bird, seated atop a red toilet and holding a coffee mug that said “COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO,” sported a cigarette in its beak, a can labeled “FOWL FRESH” beside it and a purple special-award ribbon.

Saturday brought another rhythm.

Children climbed onto farm equipment, watched animal demonstrations and browsed booths with their parents. One young visitor, perched on an adult's shoulders, looked over the crowd from above. Another, wearing a white cowboy hat, walked hand-in-hand with an adult in a black one through the fairgrounds.

At a reptile presentation, children got considerably closer to the animals than some adults might have preferred, including one young participant who held a small alligator with help from a handler.

Candidates worked booths alongside commercial vendors and community organizations, including Clint Strand, who spent part of Saturday greeting fairgoers from his campaign booth.

As evening approached, some of the crowd shifted toward the Cindy Fowler Memorial Arena for the first of two Chelan County Fair & Rodeo performances.

Before a chute opened Saturday night, however, the competition gave way to ceremony.

The Tillicum Riders Drill Team entered in a presentation honoring the U.S. military, followed later by recognition of Chelan County first responders. The announcer tied the tribute to the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and to firefighters and other responders who had worked through fires in the county.

The Canadian flag was carried into the arena next as the rodeo also recognized competitors from north of the border.

Then 2026 Chelan County Fair Rodeo Queen Josie Weaver rode into the arena carrying a large American flag as spectators were asked to stand and remove their hats. The ceremony continued with a prayer for competitors, livestock, arena workers and spectators before the national anthem and the start of competition.

The arena also introduced Vida Russell, who had won the queen competition earlier Saturday and was set to be crowned Sunday as the incoming Chelan County Fair Rodeo Queen.

Then the gates opened.

Bucking horses burst from the chutes beneath the Cashmere hills, pickup riders waited in the arena and the grandstands supplied the noise the announcer had spent the opening minutes asking for.

But Saturday night's rodeo was not the fair's finale.

Sunday's Family Day brought one more day of livestock, exhibits, food, carnival rides and entertainment. The second PRCA rodeo performance was held at 1 p.m., with bareback riding, steer wrestling, tie-down and team roping, saddle bronc riding, breakaway roping, barrel racing and bull riding. The fairgrounds stayed open until 5 p.m., with the carnival continuing until 6 p.m.

By Sunday evening, ribbons hung from exhibits. Cowboys had ridden, children had played, families had wandered the midway and thousands of people had passed through the gates.

But somewhere among all of it, a child had reached through a fence to touch a pig's nose.

Someone had put a tiny cowboy hat on a kid and taken his hand.

And someone, for reasons known only to them, had made a chicken with a cigarette in its mouth sitting on a toilet and brought it to the county fair.

Most of the fair was never on the schedule.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media