34th Time For the Glen Ellen Village Fair

It is frequently described as the shortest parade in the Sonoma Valley, probably in all of Sonoma County, quite possibly in the Greater Bay Area, and maybe in the Known Universe.

It starts with a three-person honor guard and finishes with the last of several fire trucks. In between are custom cars, howling wolves, beauty queens, lots of kids, maybe even more dogs and a lazy, laid-back spirit that flows like honey.

It moves very slowly because if it didn’t it would almost be over before it begins.

It covers a distance that is certainly shorter than a quarter of a mile (1,320 feet). It’s probably shorter than one-eighth of a mile (660 feet). It could conceivably be shorter than one-tenth of a mile (528 feet).

It starts on Carquinez Avenue, turns left onto Arnold Drive, snakes past Marshal’s Garage, flows past the post office and across the Sonoma Creek bridge. That’s it.

But being a sacred community tradition, in a decidedly sacred community, it’s not about the distance, it’s about the journey from start to finish, and then it’s about much more than the finish, because the end of the parade is actually the beginning of the Glen Ellen Village Fair, not to be confused with a Faire, which is where men wear blousy shirts, carry tankards of ale and shout huzzah!! A lot. 

These days there’s a band or two in the Post Office parking lot (Train Wreck Junction brought some Kick-Ass Country this Sunday), the firefighters sell beer, and hay bales make for comfortable seating.

Given the close proximity to Jack London State Historic Park, and the fact that Jack routinely did his drinking at the Rustic Inn – now ashes mixed with the soil beneath Shone’s market – historic behavior might not feel out of place.

But these days Glen Ellen is more concerned about the appalling attempt to plop a thousand-home subdivision on the grounds of the former Sonoma Developmental Center than about where and when Jack London consumed his whiskey and hot toddies. But it is the indelible aura of London’s persistent mystique (a few locals have been known to insist they are his reincarnation) that helps fuel the very tangible feeling that Glen Ellen is a very special place and that the Glen Ellen Village Fair (and its super-short parade) is a tradition that binds everyone ever closer to this place and time.

It’s been going on for 34 years now. Let’s not ever let it end. – David Bolling