2012 Puyallup Fair Flash Mob Flash Back

          The last day of the 2012 Washington State Fair was Sunday, September 23. For me, this year the fair was all about music and dancing. It started with a fun band of crazy dancers for a flash mob on opening day (see previous 9/9/12 blog). That pretty much set the rhythm of the rest of the fair.

The following Sunday, John and I had barely put our suitcases down from a five-hour drive home across smoky from wildfires Washington when a friend offered us free tickets to the Enrique Iglesias concert at the fair. 

Enrique Iglesias

We giddy upped downtown for a concert full of surprises, and although the audience was definitely younger than us, I knew a lot of the songs from Zumba. The Spanish/Filipino heart throb, like his father before him, had the girls swooning. I had eaten breakfast with Sarah and John at WSU that morning, enjoyed a concert with John that night, and then blew out the candles on my birthday cake at home after the concert.

My third visit to the fair was for another concert, the Doobie Brothers. John's cancelled business trip meant we had to scramble for tickets at the last minute, but we got two in row two. Don Felder, a former Eagle, and his new band kicked off the concert. Hotel California, Already Gone, Life in the Fast Lane, Witchy Woman and other songs from our younger days spilled over the rockin’ audience in the Grand Stand.

Don Felder, from The Eagles.

The Doobie Brothers!

Then the Doobie Brothers took the stage. The audience was up on its feet again as we Listen(ed) to the Music. They played my favorite hits: Black Water, Long Train Running, China Grove, Takin’ It to the Streets, as we sang out loud and danced. The level of musicianship of Don Felder’s band and The Doobie Brothers was amazing. I saw the Doobies when I was in college. I feel so lucky that I got to see them again with John this time.

More music and dancing drew me through the turnstiles of the Gold Gate for the fourth time on Friday. My friend Vicki and I lucked out, finding a rare, free parking space on the street. As we walked toward the fairgrounds, she felt self-conscious wearing a hot pink jacket. I told her not to worry. People weren’t looking at her pink jacket. My crazy dancin’ pants were a much bigger distraction.

My crazy dancin' pants

In the VIP tent we met up with 170 other flash mobbing Pitbull fans dressed in pink and ready to dance! There were a few brave men sprinkled in with our amazing group of women who share an enthusiastic love of dancing. The “usual” characters: a duck, a couple of chickens, a small posse of cowboys, and a bevy of daffodil princesses joined us in the rehearsal. 

We laughed and clowned around in the bleachers while we waited for the signal for us to begin. Then we moved into our positions in the aisles facing the stage. When the guitar started the opening notes of “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy,” we turned to face the audience with our thumbs hooked in our real or imaginary pockets. Click on link for video: Pitbull flash mob Puyallup fair

Rosie, Vicki and I ready to flash mob

As we danced, people beamed smiles at us and pulled their phones out to record us. A couple near me tried to ignore us and find their seats. I warned them they’d be better off just sitting anywhere right then. We’d be done in 30 seconds. They could find their real seats then. Just like that we were done!

The back of our flash mob t-shirts.

The 253 Crew (253 is Puyallup’s area code) headed back to the bleachers, but not for long. In a few minutes, the lights blazed, the music hit us, and Mr. 305 (Miami’s area code), Pitbull took the stage. He brought us all to our feet and we surged up front to dance for the rest of the concert. 

Pitbull, Mr. 305, Mr. Worldwide!

An overwhelmed security guard kept us from getting too close, but he couldn’t put a lid on our Pitbull-mania. At Zumba that morning, our teachers had warmed us up for the concert with a full hour of Pitbull songs: I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho), Give Me Everything, Back in Time. Now we were salsa-ing, samba-ing, shimmying and dancing in the moonlight to Pitbull, Mr. Worldwide, live! What an unforgettable, wild night shared with my sassy Zumba girlfriends.

My fifth, and last trip to the fair was to flash mob again on the closing day of the fair. Each time, the mob changed—different dancers, different schedules, different locations. This time I disguised myself as just another mild mannered fairgoer by standing in the scone line and fake texting on my phone. Fellow mobber, Linda, kept an eye out for where the mob leaders were so we’d be in the right place, at the right time. It was easy to spot the big characters, especially the duck.

It was really packed, so I was a little worried about how the crowd would get out of our way when we started dancing, but it worked. The sea of fairgoers parted and we did our dance. We “got our happy on” and the impromptu, smiling audience did too. Click on link for video: Closing day flash mob

It was the perfect finishing touch to wrap up the final flash mob with a rousing chorus of Do the Puyallup: 

All the people and the animals down at the fair,
They do the Puyallup like they didn’t have a care
And it looks like so much fun to do
I think I’m gonna learn how to do it too.

Oh you can do it at a trot,

You can do it at a gallop,
You can do it real slow so your heart won't palpitate.
Just don't be late.

Do the Puyallup!

Laura Keolanui Stark is finishing up the last of the baker’s dozen of fair scones and recovering. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com.

Flash Mob at the Puyallup Fair

September 7, 2012 was the opening day of the Puyallup Fair and it was a doozy! The weather was perfect, sunny and hot. That combined with free entry from 9 until noon if you brought a donation for the Puyallup food bank, meant that thousands (75,000 at last year’s opening day) headed for the fair.

My Zumba buddy Vicki and I thought we had the perfect plan to get around the traffic/parking problems. We were taking part in a top secret fair event, so we had a parking pass to one of the employee parking lots.

With half of the Puyallup streets closed, a trip downtown that usually takes less than 10 minutes stretched out to a frustrating hour. The fact that neither of us had bothered to find out exactly where the special parking lot was didn’t help. As the clock ticked closer to noon, we switched to Plan B and panic parked in a lady’s backyard for $10.

We didn’t have to report to our top secret fair event until 3:30, but killing time at the fair is not a problem. We crammed into the Americraft Showplex tried new skin care products, cut tomatoes with ceramic knives, and watched an expert make salsa.  We compared notes on what we’d each bought at past fairs, what worked, and what we were still using.

Outside in the sunshine, we chomped on hot, juicy roasted corn. I savored a pulled pork sandwich from Pete’s Barbecue. Vicki gobbled a turkey leg from Young Life.

At 3:30, we headed over to the VIP tent where Brenda from The Puyallup Fair (and Zumba) told us how to check everyone in for the secret event: a flash mob.

Vicki and I ready to check flash mobbers in.

A duck joins us to help the check-in process.

4:15: the first rehearsal. It went very well considering most of us had been practicing in different Zumba studios or at home individually by watching an instructional YouTube video: Puyallup Fair flash mob instructional video

4:30: the second rehearsal. Our leader, Kristyn from Zumba Maniacs tweaked how we’d flow onto “the stage.”  Things got a little more complicated when men on horseback and a giant duck were added to our dance troupe.

4:45: the final rehearsal. Good enough!

       Kristyn timed our group departures so that we’d slowly trickle out into the crowd, unnoticed. We milled around near the State Patrol building and the Americraft Showplex trying to look casual as rodeo cowboys and horses clomped by.

5:30: The opening guitar twangs of Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy started blasting from speakers turning one of the major intersections of the Puyallup Fair into a honky-tonk. 160 flash mobbers tucked our thumbs into our pockets (real and imaginary) and strutted our stuff across the asphalt. 

We Yee Hawed, grape vined, twirled, threw our hands up in the air, screamed with Usher, and did our best to Take Ova the “dance floor.”  Kids, grandmas, dads, costumed cowboys with built in horses, giant ducks, and sassy women, also known as flash mobbers, danced like crazy for four minutes, hooted and hollered, and then turned back into just your average fair-goers.

People watched the flash mob with grins on their faces. A few tried to join in. John did a great job videotaping us in action from the sidelines. Here’s the link:  Puyallup flash mob street view Look for me in my crimson Cougar t-shirt, skirt, and cowboy boots. Here's the fair's video of the mob: Puyallup fair flash mob

This year the Puyallup Fair’s slogan is “Get Your Happy On!” Woot! Woot! That’s exactly what did!

Laura Keolanui Stark crossed “Be part of a flash mob” off her bucket list. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com. If you’d like be in the flash mob on closing day, go to The Puyallup Fair’s Facebook page and click on Events.

Fair Results

Friday, September 10 was the opening day of the Puyallup Fair, the 8^th largest fair in the world.  Between 10 a.m. and noon, admittance is free if you bring a can of food for the food bank. They make sure to tell you this when you enter a quilt.

John had a meeting at work that morning scheduled to end at 11, so I figured I’d be able to work out, shower, meet him, and make it to the fair by noon. I gave him a can of beans as he left for work in case we had to go in separate cars.  At 11:35, he called to say he was running a little late, but was 5 minutes from home. He'd underestimated how heavy traffic could get on Meridian on opening day.

We took our secret route back downtown to the fair only to discover a few thousand other people had the same “secret” route.  Time was ticking closer and closer to noon as we crept along. Everyone else was aiming for an official parking lot. We parked in the backyard of the first house that had a homeowner flagging us in. 

Eight minutes and several blocks to go. I should have kept my workout shoes on. I was jogging in 3 inch heels, hanging onto John’s arm to avoid a twisted ankle. At 11:59, we stood across the street from the Gold Gate, canned goods in hand, willing the sign to blink, “Walk, walk, walk.” The crowd carried us along, through the turnstiles, and we were in! How close could we cut it?

Our first stop would be The Pavilion, to see my quilts. On our way, I told John, “Don’t expect to see a ribbon on either of them.” He gave me a questioning look. I explained, “The quilting on them isn’t the greatest.”

We got off the escalator, and walked through the doors, craning our necks, looking through the hundreds of quilts for mine.  It didn’t take long to spot the pink and brown “Walled Garden” just inside the doors; no ribbon. 

If you look closely, you can see my blue and yellow quilt on the next row, to the right.

Almost directly behind it on the next row, was the blue and yellow quilt, “Spring at Last!” Pinned to the lower right corner, was a shiny, white, 3^rd place ribbon! I was stunned!

I had been pleased to finally finish this quilt since I started it in 2004! Then I was happy to enter it in the fair, with hours to spare. To win a ribbon definitely added some very sweet frosting to the cake!

Laura Keolanui Stark is still grinning. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com.

Sew and Tell

               My eyes swept slowly over the pink, burgundy, brown, and green squares looking for loose threads that needed to be clipped. The quilting on it didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped, but it’s finally finished (I’d started making it in 2006). And, I am pleased with the piecing and overall look. The colors and blocks play well together. The zig-zagged brown border, representing a garden wall, was something I’d never tried before. With every quilt, I try to learn a new technique. I folded it up carefully, and went to get the other quilt.

               It was hanging on the wall of our stairwell. I used a broom to snag it, balancing it precariously as I pulled it down. It’s a cheerful blue and yellow quilt that I pieced one block at a time each month of 2004 for Pacific Fabrics’ block of the month club. I expanded it to fit a queen-sized bed, making two of some blocks, and adding solid blue blocks between the original 12. The “new” techniques I tried on this quilt were machine appliqué, and dimensional touches on the flowers and butterflies. Once I finished the top, it sat folded up for years, waiting to be quilted because quilting such a large quilt on a home machine is difficult.

              This summer I finally turned both of these queen-sized quilt tops into quilts, sandwiching them with batting and backs. I rented time on a longarm quilting machine at Trains, Fabrics, Etc. quilt shop in Tacoma and made a major dent in my stack of unfinished projects.

               This afternoon, I walked through the Gold Gate of the Puyallup Fair holding both quilts. Upstairs in the Pavilion, I filled out the paperwork to enter both of them, and glowed a little when the two ladies checking them in ooohed and aahhed over them. They joined the stacks of quilts that will soon be hanging for thousands to admire.

Another quilter and I rode the elevator downstairs and walked out through the dark, empty, cabinets strewn around the ground floor. We marveled over the way the fair is magically transformed each year from the haphazard skeleton that we were seeing, to the carefully arranged exhibits that we know we will see when it opens. Of course, we’ve both seen something similar before when we’ve taken hundreds of tiny squares of fabric and sewn them into beautiful quilts, each with its own personality.

We agreed that we weren’t entering our quilts expecting to win (although that would be great), but just to see them hanging in the fair, and to be able to tell our friends to go and see them. Nevertheless, as we walked back out through the gate and parted ways, we wished each other, “Good luck!”

Do the Puyallup Fair

For a few weeks in September, all roads lead to the Puyallup Fair. Seems like once we start having more sunny days than rainy ones, every road in Puyallup and Pierce County is under construction. As aggravating as it is, it makes sense. Compared to other places I’ve lived, there aren’t many potholes here---amazing considering our rainy climate. But I think the true miracle is that all the orange signs, heavy equipment, and flaggers within a few miles of Puyallup magically disappear once the fair starts.

It reminds me of the cleaning frenzy that takes over our house whenever company’s coming, except that Puyallup doesn’t just throw everything into the laundry room, they actually get the roadwork done. Living here gives us an insider’s view. We see what our city and the fairgrounds look like before, during, and after “the party,” when our feet are back up on the coffee table and we’re reviewing how it went.

I usually enter something in the fair: a quilt, a cake, scones, etc. And, I’m usually one of the last entrants to scurry through the Gold gate, bringing my husband or a friend with me. It’s a little eerie in there before the fair with the food booths boarded up, empty walkways, and the inside of the Pavilion stripped down to bare walls and vacant display cases. It’s like seeing a model bare faced, and in sweats, great bone structure, but no sparkle. Two years ago, when my friend Carol and I went to enter our quilts, she drove her SUV in through the gate and then we spent a half an hour riding around 160 desolate acres searching for a way out of what seemed like The Twilight Zone.

What a contrast to when the fair’s going full tilt, packed with millions of people. It really does have something for everyone: rides for thrill seekers or young kids, farm animals and pets, foods ranging from meals to snacks, exhibits of farm produce and kitschy collections, entertainers performing on every corner, and smooth-talking salespeople demonstrating their products. The fair becomes its own city as Puyallup throws a party that’s safer and cleaner than Mardi Gras, way more family oriented than Vegas, and lots more affordable than Disney Land. Fair neighbors work their arm muscles waving people into parking lots that used to be their yards. Locals change their routine routes to avoid the traffic instead of construction.

My husband and I are looking forward to admiring the quilts, artwork, and photography in the Pavilion, buying the latest gadgets we’ve seen advertised on TV, and gorging ourselves on elephant ears, corn on the cob, and whatever else we can only get at the fair. We’ll even send dozens of scones across the state to homesick cougars at WSU.

I hope that you’ll join us at one of the biggest fairs in the country, right here in Puyallup. We’ve got everything spruced up for you.

Laura Keolanui Stark is probably in the scone line at the Puyallup Fair. She can be reached at lkstark@yahoo.com. (Originally published in The Herald, www.puyallupherald.com as “Do the Puyallup Fair,” on 9/16/09.)