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Still bartering for the fair Photo by Bob Pennell Barter Fair promoter Alan Venet and his dog, Chera, live on a farm in the Williams area where Venet grows organic crop seeds. Venet says he hopes to revive the once-annual counterculture gathering now mired in a court battle with Jackson County. Counterculture bash heads to court By CHRIS BRISTOL WILLIAMS -- If you thought Barter Fair was history, you thought wrong. For almost 20 years the Rogue Valley's counterculture held court every October at a farm near Ruch to celebrate a point of view and a way of life that resonated with New Agers, old-fashioned hippies and free spirits from all walks of life. History of the Barter Fair 1978 -- Alan Venet hosts first Barter Fair at his home in rural Williams; about 150 friends and neighbors attend. 1984 -- Fair held for first time at Bob Evans' 140-acre leased farm in the Ruch area; about 1,000 attend. 1986 -- Event continues to grow. County begins to enforce health and safety codes; about 1,500 attend. 1990 -- Barter Fair incorporates as "alternative religious" service organization; fair attendance breaks 2,000. 1994 -- County demands $5,000 fee under state mass gathering law. Fair organizers claim indigency, county sues; attendance nears 7,000. 1995 -- Fair organizers agree to pay $3,600 permit fee; attendance breaks 10,000. August 1996 -- Barter Fair settles lawsuit, agrees to pay 1994 fee. September 1996 -- Fair organizers file suit in federal court after county demands fee of more than $18,000. U.S. District Magistrate John P. Cooney enjoins county from charging fee and allows fair to hold event. October 1996 -- Last fair in Southern Oregon; only 5,500 attend as organizers complain about heavy police presence. December 1996 -- Evans farm lease expires. September 1997 -- Fund-raiser near Harrisburg (15 miles north of Eugene) draws only 800. 1998 -- No event. Fair has no money and no site. April 1999 -- 1996 lawsuit set for trial May 18. Both sides making settlement offers. But the last Barter Fair was in 1996. Now the fair is simply in court -- federal court. And so is Jackson County. A lawsuit filed by the fair's organizers is set for trial next month in U.S. District Court in Medford, with the Board of Commissioners and Sheriff Bob Kennedy named as defendants. The plaintiffs, led by fair founder and manager Alan Venet, an organic seed farmer from Williams, contend the county violated their constitutional rights with excessive regulations, fees and permits and that a heavy police presence in 1996 damaged the fair commercially. The fair, they say, was a religious event, and they were the victims of persecution. "It's our contention that this has been culture wars," Venet says. "It's like saying they don't like our religious views because we're Albanian Muslims." Regardless of the outcome, Venet claims Barter Fair will be back. In fact, it never left. "We haven't gone anywhere," he says. "We live here. We want to do it down here. This is where we want to be." Just where "where" is remains to be seen. The fair began in 1978 as a low-key weekend get-together among Venet's friends to swap fresh produce. Venet himself hosted the first fair -- the name is a play on the request to "barter fairly" -- and for several years it moved around from home to home. Over the years it grew in popularity. Organizers eventually sublet a 140-acre farm near Ruch, and entertainment in the form of music and parades soon rivaled vendors hawking arts and crafts. By 1995, the fair was pulling in more than 10,000 people over its normal three-day run. It soon gained a reputation as stepchild to Oregon Country Faire, the Ken Kesey counterculture bonanza held each summer near tiny Veneta outside Eugene. The fair also gained another reputation. Neighbors and other residents in the Ruch area complained about drug use and nudity. Traffic was always a problem, and parking a nightmare. With growth came red tape. The county began demanding a permit under Oregon's mass-gathering law, which is triggered when more than 3,000 people camp overnight. The fair protested, setting off a flurry of suits and countersuits. Growth also brought a heavier police presence, which came to a head in 1996 when Kennedy sent dozens of sheriff's deputies and state police troopers. Fair organizers cried foul, and then sued. Barter Fair counsel Brian Michaels, a Eugene attorney, described the controversy as a "watered-down" version of the civil rights movement 40 years ago. In this case, he said, the clash is cultural. "They just wanted the Barter Fair no longer in their county, and that's just not allowed," Michaels says. "That's like being in Mississippi in the Fifties, and they didn't want the NAACP there." Venet agrees, saying county and law enforcement officials view him and fairgoers as "dirty, hairy-armpit communist sleazeballs" who do nothing but smoke dope and get naked. Any event, from rodeos to county fairs to football games, has problems with alcohol and drugs, he said. Venet said a few rowdies were attracted to the event by negative publicity generated by local law enforcement officials. "They keep saying the fair's all about drugs, but it's not," he says. "We never called ourselves a drug event. That's from the cops." Kennedy denies that he cracked down on Barter Fair out of spite. Instead, he says the fair was simply growing too big and generated too many complaints for law enforcement to look the other way. "When it was 50 people or 150 people, it was no big deal," he says. "But the event grew and grew." As a defendant in the lawsuit, Kennedy is familiar with the continuing negotiations for a settlement. If and when the fair picks up where it left off, he says he plans to pick up where he left off, too. "I really think they believe they should be able to have an event without rules," he says. "That's just not going to happen." County commissioners and other county officials declined to comment, citing the lawsuit. Venet said the county has offered free use of the Expo Center for seven years and offered to pay attorney fees if organizers drop the lawsuit -- an offer Venet dismisses as impractical because the Expo doesn't fit the rural nature of the fair. For its part, the county was nonplussed by Barter Fair's counteroffer. Venet offered to drop the suit if the county would develop a county-owned site for future mass gatherings, but so far the county has shown no enthusiasm for the plan. Venet says the county should develop a rural site for the fair because other groups -- such as American Indian tribes and the medieval-flavored Society for Creative Anachronism -- would use it for their events, too. "There is a large potential here for economic development," he says. "The county is crazy not to recognize that fact." The fair has no money to buy its own site, but that could change if the county loses the suit and has to pay out a huge damage award, he says. On the other hand, the fair could lose. Venet says he plans to keep negotiating a settlement as long as he believes the county is making a good-faith effort to fashion a compromise. "Right now we're trying to work it out with the county, because it seems more proactive," he says. "Whether politics can be sensible or not remains to be seen." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA