Washington County Fairgrounds-Fair Complex

The Washington County Fair is an awkward concoction of raging hipster meets redneck hillbilly in Hillsboro.
I went on an interesting MAX ride out west to the Fair Complex /​Hillsboro Airport station. You would think John Wayne shot a movie there. Cowboys were riding around on the way back. Wayne would have antagonized the dandies in the nearby Alphabet District. Yes, there’s the platform but ahead is a huge field where you wait for school buses to shuttle you to the fair.
The entrance to the fair was smooth. There was no admission price, no lines, and no searches if you didn’t bring a backpack. Most intriguing, this county fair proved instantly convincing. I walked around and I saw the same horse and pig breeders you see at the state fair. Deep fried food is plentiful, insects dipped in chocolate are numerous and donut sundaes are spontaneous. Sweet Cheeks, a major vendor for fried food, showed up for the party.
I had fried cheesecake — which I couldn’t complete because such a dairy substance cannot be successfully fried. The kangaroo burger I had was good. You can eat curly fries until the end of time with their large portions.
There were all kinds of carnival games and rides. Competitions for food, even refrigerated food was abound. Born again christian booths, both political parties, and all kinds of innovative corporate products were present. All the same fluffy buildings you’d expect were there. Reptile exhibits were also joining in.
It was huge and it was free. On the contrary, Portland’s City Fair and the Multnomah County Fair are disappointing by comparison. Multnomah, Oregon’s superimposing giant failed. The food was minimal and there were few interactive booths, mostly yupee things to sell. Washington County Fair had it all and the differences between this and the big olé Oregon State Fair can be counted on one hand.
That was a tall order for one county and they knocked it out of the park.
The bus back was slow, but not too bad.
You will love it. This is free and you can spend hours here. It is fun and unique.
The Washington County Fairgrounds are worth a look.

Lots of free stuff at the booths and everybody is so nice! WASHINGTON COUNTY FAIR IS AWESOME… Lots of great food and people to talk to. Shelf genie is the best booth in the place! The girl helping us there was very nice!!!

Nice place to have fairs and easy to find parking. I’ve been here on several occasions for the rock and gem shows. Place is big and can hold a lot of vendors and parking lot is huge, never had a problem finding parking.
Now if only it wasn’t so far out in the westside of town…

Easy to find parking, not many facilities around there good for some fairs or festivals.

The fair was good for a county fair. the carnival rides were ridiculously overpriced.