My 50th annual North Country Fair-its been a long windy road -selling ceramics at the North Counrty Fair

[Mark C.]

Well I never thought I would be at this for 50 years. It all started with this one show-its turning 50 this weekend in Arcata Ca . It will be my 50 show as well as the shows 50th year (we missed one for covid)

Its been a local event for my whole adult life. I should add a disclaimer that I'm one of the folks who is on the board and helps put the show on. We are called the same old people with lots of meeting budgets etc  over the course of the whole year. I am the only artist left who has done all 50. I have been on a corner for so long  selling pots thats its almost an institution . Now the local paper has a write up by our founder which spells out how the fair started and how it is a total community event (non-profit) Its a good read as Jerry is a great writer. Enjoy the history of this small town festival -Samba Parade on Sunday all speices parade on Saturday Both at 1 pm. Town is 15 k in size and has a town plaza (square) We get a huge turnout and some come from SF about 6 hours south as once you have seen on you always come back.

A Bridge Across the Years: The North Country Fair, 1973-2024

 

At the time of the first North Country Fair there hadn’t been a public event on the Arcata Plaza for three years. In spring of 1970, Henry Kissinger’s bombing of Cambodia had ignited “campus unrest” across the nation. Like now, administrators panicked, cops over-reacted, beat and jailed protestors. At Kent State four students were shot.

            At Humboldt State students brought their protest downtown, where the Kiwanis were having their annual barbecue. Amid the conflict of cultures and generations, a young man started a fire at the entrance of the Bank of America—now the Cal Poly bookstore. (Students had recently torched Isla Vista’s B of A because they were financing bases where bombers re-fueled.)

The fire scorched the bank’s entry, the young man went to jail, and Arcata’s chief of police declared no more public gatherings on the Plaza.

 

So Arcata was already divided when the freeway cut it in half. City Council members—five old white guys—were solidly behind it. So was HSU’s administration. Strange people had moved into town, opened shops that sold strange things. They mingled with students and faculty, became part of the college radio station. Students graduated, but didn’t leave. Started strange businesses of their own. 

These new people were against the freeway and organized to stop it, but it was too late. It was reduced from eight to six lanes, but still the middle of the town disappeared: entire blocks of old houses, a church, a restaurant, trees and gardens, apartments and residence halls. A neighborhood connecting college and town.

Stop at Six had a final meeting. After that bitter defeat, what could they do? One person-she was calling herself River at the time-said: We should give the town a party.

Inspired craziness. Just what we needed. But where?

Now it was 1973. Things were changing. The draft ended. 18-year-olds could vote. The endangered Species Act. Ethnic Studies at the College. Liberals on the City Council. But Chief Gibson’s rule hadn’t changed.

 There was another battle, but this time we won. The first North Country Fair was on the Autumn equinox of 1973. The plaza filled with music, food, crafts and services, businesses and nonprofits, and the townspeople and the students partied and shopped, ate and danced, and saw themselves as one community.

 

The biggest obstacle was again presented by the City: a million-dollar insurance policy and a whopping bill to pay the police to watch us. But eighty booths paid twenty-five dollars each and the Fair broke even, mostly by not paying ourselves anything. And there was this profit: lots of local artists, musicians, services and food places had their beginnings in those twenty-five-dollar booths and on that play-for-nothing stage. 

And there was also this, at the bottom of the mimeograph poster and application form: We believe the basis of our life and economy is cooperation and mutual aid.

Half a century later, the North Country Fair goes on for two days, with two stages, two parades and over two hundred booths. Its budget seems enormous, but it still runs on a shoestring. Crafts people and artisans and nonprofits still struggle to stay solvent. Musicians play for a small honorarium. This year there will be a chance for fairgoers to help pay the bands and keep the music going. Please contribute what you can.

 

Yet all these years later, the freeway and the college administration are still a divisive issue.

Caltrans has offered to atone for some of its massive ecological and social damage— $148 million divided with San Diego and San Francisco to compensate for engineered apartheid. Arcata’s share will be small, but there is already a plan for more engineering—The Arcata Cap-to put five-acres of reinforced concrete over Highway 101, from 14^th to 17^thStreets.

But the administrators and trustees of the State University, on the other hand, are still using every means possible to isolate itself from the town—and from its own faculty and students. There is far more interest in power than education. More than ever we need a college that is not afraid of the town, and a town that doesn’t try to fix all its problems with cement.

I call upon all of us, students and townspeople, to recognize and

 celebrate the spirit of the North Country Fair. Please join us on the Plaza on September 21 and 22. Happy Equinox,

                                                                        Jerry Martien

                                                                        Director Emeritus 

The North Country Fair 

[Rae Reich]

Have a great fair!

Our Street Fair, which began much as yours, full of arts and crafts, devolved over the years into a profit-making enterprise with mostly food and beer as the attractions. Many of us miss it. Yours sounds like lots of fun and ART!!

[Mark C.]

Over 100 art vendors (no impots ever) must make your products-strict jury. I'm now part of the Jury as  past years  ago only 4 clay booths applied so I recuted more and this year we let in just over 10 ceramic booths (many share a booth). There is a beer booth (non profit) which will turn it over in next few years to us (the same old people whio run the show) so we will have that capital to work with. We have 10 food booths who pay a larger booth fee. Booth fees are just under $300 for artists and discounted for non profit info booth in center of plaza.We actually a few years ago made enough to lower booth fees so we did. I will be on the board after I'm retired from the show I'm sure. I replaced myself about 7 years ago with a younger artist so when i'm gone its still a concern. All us old timers got new blood in and they are the majority now on the board.

Fun is a big factor for the public check out or Samba parades on you tube (Samba North country fair) This show is alwasy near or on the equinox (always the 3rd full weekend in Sept.) This year its back on the Equinox. We all work for free  on the board of course and hire a director and assistant to run the show. I recruited this director as well as I have know here since she was 7 now in her 30s .I love this show and its my only show now I do a year in my slowed down state these days . I have customers from SF that travel up to the show as well. 12 hour round trip. Its a once a year community show and we pull out all the stops to do it right-3 stages of music as well. Free event also a zero waste event as we have worked hard and where the 1st in this area to do that.

 

[GEP]

This is an amazing accomplishment, Mark! A testament to consistency, quality, and hard work. You are making working potters proud!

[Denice]

I hope your potters sell all of their pots.  Have fun!   Denice