Fun at the fair: West Linn enjoys 68th annual Old Time Fair

As temperatures reached into the nineties in West Linn over the weekend, fun was cooking at the Old Time Fair.

Thousands descended upon West Linn’s Willamette Park between July 12-14 for the 68th annual event.

The fair kicked off in royal fashion Friday evening with the Old Time Fair ambassador court coronation ceremony. The coronation culminated with the crowning of ambassador Sadie Jones as this year’s queen. She succeeds her sister, Hallie, who was crowned Old Time Fair queen in 2023.

Old time fun continued the next day with the Historic Willamette waiters race and Old Time Fair parade, where the West Linn Food Pantry served as grand marshalls.

Allissa Caceres of the West Linn Parks and Rec Department, which puts on the fair, called this year’s event a success. She saw only one issue over the weekend.

“I wish we could turn the temperature down about five degrees,” she said.

A number of young fair attendees said they had a good time.

Sporting a brand new unicorn henna tattoo and munching on cotton candy, 4-year-old Ava Gandhi said she was having a lot of fun. Ava and her brother Nick, 6, (who showed off his snake tattoo) participated in Sunday morning’s PJs to Pancakes and returned to the fair that afternoon to watch their friends participate in the pie-eating contest.

Five-year-old Rhiannon and her brother, Isaac, attended the fair for the first time. Isaac said his favorite part of the fair was the pie, while Rhiannon said she enjoyed the rides, though she also had a huge smile on her face while digging into a plate of apple pie with vanilla ice cream.

“I especially enjoyed the black uppy high one,” Rhiannon said of her favorite ride.