Fair strikes deal with swap meet for ‘village’

Swap meet vendors say that a first-time deal with the Orange County Fair will help them regain lost time.

This year, fair officials have set aside space for salespeople from the Orange County Market Place, Costa Mesa’s weekend swap meet, to peddle their goods to the fairgoing public.

On weekends, the swap meet takes over the main parking lot at the fairgrounds, but during fair time in the summer it has to shut down. With the fair expanding to five weeks this summer, instead of its usual four, fair vendors complained to the fair board that they would lose valuable time to do business.

The fair responded by creating a “village” full of booths selling food items, home furnishings, jewelry and a variety of knickknacks.

“Four weeks of business interruption is tough and five weeks would have been that much more difficult for them,” said Jeff Teller, the president of the Market Place.

Although some of the fair vendors typically sold goods in individual booths scattered throughout the halls of the fair, this new village will allow vendors who were denied in the past to participate and it will help the swap meet develop name recognition among the large crowds that attend the fair, Teller said.

Fair organizers are setting aside space for 85 booths in the village. The idea originated during the discussions of expanding the fair months ago, but the idea of a collaboration between the two organizations that share a space has been in the works much longer, said the fair’s chief executive, Steve Beazley.

“Jeff Teller and I have been talking for a long time now about how to cross-promote the market place and the fair,” Beazley said.

Both the fair and the swap meet leaders hope the village will drive fairgoers from around the county to come back to the fairgrounds after it ends to shop at the swap meet.