COUNTYWIDE : Posters Unveiled for Promotion of Fair

Officials of the 1992 Ventura County Fair kicked off the summer fair season Monday, unveiling a poster that depicts a stained-glass tableau of a juggling jester and a minstrel in medieval dress.

The use of faux-stained glass and historic characters help illustrate the theme of Camelot chosen for this year’s fair that begins Aug. 19, manager Michael Paluszak said.

“We’re not doing a Renaissance fair, but a county fair with a Renaissance theme,” Paluszak said after the unveiling.

The theme will show up elsewhere as well, he said, from the selection of strolling entertainers, to fairground decorations and the choice of some shows.

Paluszak said fair organizers chose Camelot as the theme because the origins of today’s county fairs can be traced to the medieval market places of Camelot, the legendary town where King Arthur held court.

“And the Camelot theme is also festive,” he said. “The flags, banners, pageantry and visual elements of many fairs today come from that era.”

Designed by fair publicists Devlin and Teri Raley of Creative Images in Ventura, the 1992 promotional poster features a jester dressed in blue skirt and mauve vest juggling three orange balls. The figure wears a floppy, tricorn hat and pointed slippers festooned with bells.

Seated at his feet is a minstrel playing a flute-like recorder, and he wears a red leather vest over a peasant’s blouse.

Fair officials will distribute 3,000 of the posters for promotion, and make available for sale to collectors another 2,000 at $16 each. Interest in the fair’s old posters has remained steady, and prices for some have ballooned, said Paluszak.

As they pop up across the county, the posters will herald the rapid approach of the fair, Raley said. “With the unveiling of the poster, it seems like everything accelerates at breakneck speed until the opening of the fair,” Raley said.

As for the Camelot theme, Raley said the seaside location and coastal weather of the Ventura County Fair suggested something as fabled as King Arthur’s kingdom.

“In the realm of county fairs, this is Camelot,” Raley said.