This year’s fair a source of pride

There were steers stampeding � more like strolling, actually � through the streets of Orange County.

There were sows giving birth to squirming, sprinting, spastic piglets.

There was an aging but still-hip Bob Dylan singing “Tangled Up in Blue� and other hits and non-hits.

There was the $15 Hucowamongous Burger, which could feed a horse, or a family of four.

The best Orange County Fair in recent memory?

We think that’s fair enough to say.

Perhaps our memories are short, but the fair seemed to sparkle more than ever this year. Consider what didn’t happen:

Instead, throngs of Orange County residents, and those who live outside its boundaries, converged on the fair and, for the most part, enjoyed the rides, the carnival games, the weird and delectable foods, the off-beat artists, the neon and the exhibits.

But back to Dylan (not to mention Heart and Lynyrd Skynyrd). Back in the 1990s, when efforts were underway to build an amphitheater at the fair site, who could have foreseen that the voice of a generation � the 1960s, that is � and one of the biggest names in music would be playing in our backyard?

But there he was, jamming on stage with a rocking band and seeming to love every minute of it.

The Pacific Amphitheatre has become a viable, thriving concert venue.

Indeed, the times they are a changin’.

Here’s to continued change, continued prosperity. Folks, we have a fair we can all be proud of.