Santa Barbara County Fair begins 2-day virtual auction for agriculture, industrial arts students

SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- The Santa Barbara County Fair opened a two-day virtual auction for local agricultural and industrial arts students on Thursday.

Due to COVID-19, it's the second straight year the fair has held the event with an online format.

"The kids really did get the short end of the stick," said Chris Garmon, Santa Barbara County Fair Livestock Entry Supervisor. "We wanted to give them an outlet for their project and give them a sense of normalcy and we figured this was best way for them to showcase their project and their hard work."

Over the two-day period, potential buyers are able to view livestock and industrial arts projects through a virtual platform.

"It's somewhat of an Ebay style where you log in and you can bid on a project and you'll get notified on text or email if you are outbid and you can log back in and replace your bid," said Garmon.

The livestock sale will include replacement heifers, market beef, swine, sheep and goats.

All sales benefit 4-H, FFA, Grange students in Northern Santa Barbara County and South San Luis Obispo County, as well as independent exhibitors.

"These kids really spend a lot of time in the barn and working on the project, almost close to a year long project for the market steers and about six months for the pigs, sheep and goat," said Garmon. "It's a time for them to showcase their project and show off their hard work."

In addition to the auction, the fair also held a virtual show for students as well. The winners were announced on Tuesday.

"The kids had to submit a 90 second video and we broke up the videos into their weight classes, so everyone was on a level playing ground and the videos were sent off to the judges," said Garmon. "They were very pleased with the projects and it was very competitive. The kids were very happy with the outcome."

The Junior Livestock Show & Sale is the second of three modified events the Santa Maria Fairpark is holding in place of the Santa Barbara Fair during the month of July.

Over the first two weekends, the Fairpark held the Helm and Sons Amusements Greatest Portable Theme Park.

On July 25, a concert and dance featuring Banda El Recodo and the Los Destructores will take place at the Fairpark.

Santa Barbara County Fair management is planning to hold a traditional in-person fair in 2022.

"Let's hope so," said Garmon. "It's been rough for the kids and we want to get the kids back to normalcy."