Umatilla County Fair could lose money in 2025

Published 6:00 am Wednesday, August 6, 2025

While the fair made the county money last year, county budget officials predict this year’s fair will run at a deficit of about $467,000

PENDLETON — Umatilla County officials expect this year’s county fair to run a $467,000 deficit.

County budget officials said they have budgeted roughly $2.3 million in proposed revenue and approximately $2.7 million in proposed expenses for this year’s fair. Those proposed expenses account for less than 2% of the county’s $187.3 million 2025-26 fiscal year operating budget. Accounting for the exact — not rounded — numbers, this means county officials predict this year’s fair will run at a deficit of about $467,000.

But Umatilla County Commissioner Dan Dorran said county officials can’t predict the fair’s financial outcome until it’s over.

“Nobody has made any predictions at all at this point … We don’t know how many tickets will get sold or how many hot dogs will get sold,” Dorran, a former county fair board member, said. “You never know till the fair is over.”

According to county budget officials, the fair last year cost the county approximately $2.4 million and generated approximately $2.6 million in revenue. Accounting for the exact — not rounded — revenue and expense numbers, this means that the fair generated about $263,000 in profit for the county last year.

The 2025 fair begins Wednesday, Aug. 6, and runs through Saturday, Aug. 9.

The fair is worth the money

Dorran said the fair pays for itself. He said every dollar that is spent at the Umatilla County Fair has a local multiplier of 6.7.

“People have to buy gas and diesel, stay in motel rooms and spend money downtown on clothes,” he said.

Hermiston Mayor Doug Primmer, a longtime Umatilla County resident, echoed similar sentiment.

“It’s an economic boon for the city … people come here … and they spend their time and their money here,” Primmer said.

While Dorran said the economic benefit of the fair has a more direct impact on Hermiston, he noted that extends beyond Hermiston. One example, he said, is the money youth make selling animals at that fair.

Primmer concurred with Dorran.

While a large portion of the people who go to the fair are from the Hermiston area, “it brings in people from outside the area as well,” Primmer said.

Economic analysis research

A 2007 study — based on data from 2004 Oregon county fairs and adjusted for inflation in 2006 dollars — conducted by researchers at Oregon State University found fairs helped generate approximately $52 million in economic activity statewide.

According to the study, county fairs generated approximately $33.7 million in “new money” for communities statewide and created at least 649 full- and part-time jobs.