Cows may come to Orange County Fair

It’s been a while since a herd of cattle thundered through the streets of Costa Mesa — 13 years, to be precise — but they may roam the city again in July as part of festivities for the 2007 Orange County Fair. This year’s theme is “Cowabunga! The year of Herefords, surfers and sand,” and to illustrate that, fair organizers want to use 125 riders to drive 300 head of cattle to the fairgrounds on July 27.

Vice president of fair events and facilities Doug Lofstrom, who has worked on seven cattle drives in his career, said this year’s cattle drive will be bigger than one the fair staged in 1994. He has applied for permits from Costa Mesa and from Huntington Beach, where he hopes to drive 100 steers along the beach as a promotional tie-in between the fair and a surf competition.

Costa Mesa officials are still working out logistics of the cattle route and addressing a few residents’ concerns about street closures. Lofstrom said the fair will be putting out more information on cow-related events as it becomes available, so check the website, www.ocfair.com.

— Alicia Robinson