My vote for the stupidest rationale for the name change is their idea that "Calling it a state fair will also help in talks with the entertainment industry and with potential sponsors..." (Seattle Times article quoting Fair spokesperson.)

As a 30+ year veteran of the entertainment industry, I can tell you that entertainers don't care about the name, they just want you to show them the money. And sponsors don't care about the name either, they just want you to show them the attendance figures and demographics.

Any marketer who is worth anything knows that product differentiation is the name of the game, not homogenization. "Puyallup" is colorful, evokes place, has a great history, and is well known and loved. It is a huge asset, not a liability. The guys who are proposing this should get the F out of WA. I'm sure they can find employment telling Kleenex to change its name to Tissues.

Demonstrating maximum hubris, The Western Washington Fair Association, AKA the Puyallup Fair, attempts to hijack a piece of valuable intellectual property.

Only the state can designate a "State Fair", and many less successful states have sold the rights to the name. Now, given the Governatrix's bend to give away valuable stuff owned by the public (gaming compacts, gas tax "rebates" to the tribes, I don't know how many state parks) it would not surprise me if she ignored this "steal it, then apologize if necessary" move by the Association.

What about the Evergreen State Fair, the Northwest Washington Fair, and the Central Washington Fair, or the Interstate Fair? Was this done with collegial consulting? Nope.

Makes me associate the Puyallup with "piggy, piggy", but they don't even let you pet them this year, even if you promise to wash your hands.

Fie on them.

The Geezer has spaketh

The ersatz Evergreen State Fair is actually the Snohomish County Fair with a bad dose of hubris.

I was interested to see in the Times story that the state got out of the fair business in the 1930s, leaving the field to the counties and to private associations -- an early manifestation of our state's self-inflicted identity crisis that reminds us of the extra challenge we face in doing big things together.

My daughter finished second in junior Western riding at the Puyallup fair in 1988. I have always been proud to say that she did this "at State," but never certain that this was legitimate.

To actually have something called "The Washington State Fair," the way most other states do, won't be a game changer, but it's a step in the direction of taking pride and responsibility for the place we live. I think it's great.

Thanks for the link to the jingles -- we were trying to figure out how to fit "Washington State Fair" in the current tune at dinner last night, and failing miserably. This does indeed seem like a ridiculous change.

Every community has shibboleths that identify locals to each other, and around here, pronouncing Puyallup correctly is one of them. We used to mark how long it took a newly hired anchor or reporter on the local news shows to learn regional names -- by the time they could say Sequim or Twisp correctly, we figured they might actually know something about the place they were discussing.

It's important to remember that for decades before it was officially renamed the Puyallup Fair (as a marketing move) it was in fact the Western Washington State Fair. Everyone calls it the Puyallup Fair, but it didn't call itself that until it initiated the "Do the Puyallup" ad campaign, which I always found tacky and trite.

Thank you! I was worried I was the only one to remember that it was the Western Washington State Fair! Just as you explain, we called it the Puyallup Fair but I, and you, always understood its "real" name.

The incessant and interminable marketing in our lives these days just gives me a headache. The more the marketers push at me, the more I move away. But we have a couple of younger generations out there that feel compelled to reinvent the wheel for themselves and their peers, so good luck to them. I'll continue to think of it as the Puyallup Fair despite this newest marketing version, and for those that think having a "State" fair is important, please enjoy.

Then you must also remember the "Lil' George Washington" logo that the fair used up until around 1970. I have a picture of it. Too bad we can't include images here. (Or if we can, I don't know how.)

I absolutely agree with you... first word to last!

How about adding some whirrled class and call it the Western Washington State Fair at Puyallup. Shopping, parking and lots of cuddly animals.

The local-yokel outrage is palpable from here in Fremont.

Calling the biggest late-summer fair "The State Fair," just as in the musical "State Fair?" As they do in Indiana, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Oh-Hi-Oh? And any number of other states? How USUAL, how commonplace, how BORING (with apologies, in the latter case, to the residents of the Oregon community of that name).

Think of it this way: if the good citizens of Puyallup can forego the notoriety and chamber-of-commerce-building power of the name, the rest of us should be willing to admit that there is an event big enough to be called The Washington State Fair.

I'm willing to give it a try. However, I'm less certain that I will brave the choked and convoluted roadways of East Pierce County to get there and back. The logistics have kept me away for several years now...

You killed em, Knute. Good piece.

The jingle would be easy to change. Do the State Fair.thewash ington state fair. But I vote to keep the Pu y'all up name. I will figure out how to pronounce it someday. But perhaps they could do something about Sequim.

pew-AL-up

Old-timers on the Olympic Peninsula would insert an extra syllable in the oral use of Quilcene. It was properly pronounced "Quil-uh-cene". The venerable Dupuis restaurant, founded in 1920 between Port Angeles and Sequim (itself a vocal test)was called "Doobie's". These charming colloquialisms, I'm afraid, have faded away. But you could always tell the outsiders.

I think we need to seriously consider changing the name of our State. "Washington" is such a mouth bending word (as most as bad as "Puget Sound region") that doesn't not at all reflect the nature of this state. And then there's the obvious and long lived confusion with Washington "The City".

Washington seems to stand alone in a US West populated with some of the most mellifluous native American and Spanish names -- Colorado, California...even Oregon..evoke wonder.

"Seattle" is a brand name that is unique and carried globally. But "Washington"? I like the new recast of the "Puget Sound region" as the Salish Sea. Beautiful right? We could rename the state Salish or how about renaming the state "Sealth" Chief Seattle's real name? So then, the largest city would be Seattle, Sealth. So nice, we named it twice!