So here it is. Normally the last weekend in July, the Fair takes up a large portion of the Bellevue Square parking garage, and sometimes parking lots on surrounding streets. In its heyday, it ran 11 hours a day, with hundreds of booths. It was sponsored by the Bellevue Art Museum, and included an art competition, drawing hundreds of entries.

First, the museum changed its name to the Bellevue ARTS Museum, and changed its focus away from high art to more crafts, including younger, edgier artists, and more women. Yes, it went Woke. Those changes were unfortunate and the museum lost customers. Early this year, it went bankrupt. The Fair is now sponsored by the Bellevue Downtown Association.

Next came the Covid Health Nazi restrictions on all social activities in 2020. The authoritarian Governor kept the state of emergency for 975 days, which throttled all kinds of social activities, even ones taking place outdoors. There was no fair in 2020, Since then, the fair is a shadow of its former self. All the remote booths are gone, and only 1/3 of the garage had booths this year. Instead of a full street of numerous food booths, there were only a few food trucks, with unappetizing choices.

Most years, I buy something at a booth, mostly jewelry. This year, all I found to buy were some note cards with snow leopards on them. I usually take photos of items that intrigue me; this year there were only a couple. Here’s one:

One more, hanging from the booth wall.

But these were the best. The artist/engineer created very clever Rube Goldberg devices, where colored marbles follow twisting paths from top to bottom. First, some still photos.

I hope you like these.