Putting on a successful county fair takes more than a carnival, cotton candy and cows.

Innovation, community support and volunteerism have to be part of any recipe for putting on a good show and keeping people coming back year after year.

“Fairs just can’t stay the same,” Curry County Fair Manager Ron Crook said. “They have to change with the times.”

Coos County Fair Manager Cindy Bedingfield also subscribes to that strategy. She strives to fill the fair with exhibits that keep a finger on the pulse of modern culture — especially those that appeal to the younger generations — as well as the long-time crowd pleasers.

“Our fair is very youth-oriented,” Coos County 4-H exhibit and contest coordinator Elissa Wells said. “Kids are very important to our community.”

Coos County isn’t the only fair trying to keep up with the youngsters.

The Linn County Fair just ended its run with an attendance of about 28,000, which was 2,000 more than last year. The fair, held on the Albany fairgrounds just off Interstate 5, uses hands-on educational exhibits to pull in young families. Marketing Manager Jan Taylor said the fair plans to build on that winning formula. But it won’t stop there.

The goal?

Teenagers.

“I still think there are enough teenagers here and we don’t want them just sitting around,” Taylor said.

The plan is to bring in a concert that would entice the teen crowd, perhaps on a Sunday, a traditionally slow night.

While innovation and appealing to a younger audience are working for some fairs, tradition and volunteerism seem to be the key for others.

If there is a secret to getting people through the gates, the Tillamook County Fair has it. The fair climbed back from the verge of collapse in the 1990s to draw huge crowds from inside and outside the county. Tillamook County has a population of a little more than 25,000, yet the county fair pulled in about 73,000 attendees in 2007, Fair Manager Jerry Underwood said.

He said the fair is very traditional. He hasn’t yet tried to bring in anything that couldn’t have been seen at the fair in decades past, though he may in the future.

In his opinion, the key ingredient has been a phenomenal amount of volunteer support.

That support wasn’t always as easy to come by. In 1990, the entire fair board had quit and left the fairgrounds in disrepair. Underwood took over as manager in 1991 and, with volunteers and a new fair board behind him, started digging the fair out of its rut.

“Since then the board became very hands-on,” he said.

While the Tillamook County Fair is a success story, Curry County Fair organizers hope theirs is a success in the making.

Seven months ago, the Curry County Fair was out of money. So the fair board stepped up and got more involved in the day-to-day needs of the Gold Beach fairgrounds.

“It put new energy into the board,” Crook said.

Now repair and maintenance projects are putting the fairgrounds back on track to its former glory, Crook said.

The biggest component of the revitalization was volunteerism, Crook said. A group called the Curry County Fair Friends collected and donated $20,000 to the fair for work on the fairgrounds. The fair has partnered with the Curry County Sheriff’s Office to have work crews from the jail help spruce up the place as well.

“What we’ve accomplished is unbelievable,” Crook said. “We feel good.”

The fair itself is bouncing back. Crook said the focus was making the fairgrounds shine and be put to use all year long. This year’s county fair, starting on Thursday, will be a foundation for the years to come.

The past four years, attendance has plummeted, partially because the fair changed carnival companies to one with fewer rides.

“Carnivals are very important to the success of a fair,” Crook said. “The carnival is the backbone.”

This year the carnival is bringing in 15 rides, the most the fair has had.

The theme this year is “Sunshine and Sea Breeze, the ‘Power’ to Please.” The focus is on alternative energy and will feature exhibits on electric cars and hybrids, and exhibits with tips for saving energy around the house.

All the fairs share the challenge of a backsliding economy and high gas prices. But organizers hope if they keep fairs affordable, the economy can work for them rather than against them.

At the Curry County Fair, Crook said reduced-price armbands will be available on all four days, rather than just two, for the first time. The armbands, coupled with the fuel cost saved by finding fun close to home, may bring more people to the fair.

The Coos County Fair is going one step further, offering a fair shuttle in the Bay Area to help people get to the fair without worrying about fuel costs.

“That is where we need to be as fairs,” Taylor said. “We will continue to grow, if we can keep our prices down.”

Staff Writer Jolene Guzman can be reached by calling 269-1222, ext. 235; or by e-mailing to jguzman@theworldlink.com.