Lakefair

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Capital Lakefair
Lakefair in 2008 as seen from the State Capitol campus
Genre	5-Day Community Festival
Date(s)	3rd week in July
Frequency	Annual
Venue	Heritage Park
Location(s)	Capitol Lake, Olympia, Washington, USA
Years active	67
Inaugurated	1957
Most recent	July 12-16, 2023
Next event	July 17-21, 2024
Attendance	200,000+
Organised by	Capitalarians
Filing status	501(c)(3)
People	Karen Griggs, Co-President Ken Ringering, Co-President
Website	www.lakefair.org
[1][2]

Capital Lakefair is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Olympia, Washington. While widely known as Olympia’s annual 5-day summer festival, Lakefair operates year-round in Thurston County.

The festival is a volunteer driven organization governed by a voting member body known as the Capitalarians, a group of individuals that show their love and dedication to the people of Thurston County by donating their time and effort.

Each year as part of the Scholarship Ambassador Program (formerly the Royal Court), a new group of young women from area high schools join the Lakefair Scholarship Ambassador program tradition. The Scholarship Ambassadors participate in all aspects of the organization throughout the season. This includes local activities such as the donation drive by Bob Leingang Memorial Fish In, All Kids Win, American Cancer Society's Relay for Life, and events held by other area non-profit service groups. They also visit locations across Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia as the Lakefair Float rides in parades hosted by other community festivals. Each Scholarship Ambassador receives a $3,000 scholarship to be applied to any type of higher education, and the selected head ambassador receives an additional $2,000.

Funding for Capital Lakefair is provided by contributions from individuals and businesses in their community, local city/county lodging tax funds, grants, financial and/or in-kind donations by their sponsors and operations from the annual five-day festival in July.

Lakefair was established in 1957 to celebrate the community and continues to be the largest such event in the area.