Getting Ready for the Fair : Events: Workers and volunteers busily prepare for Wednesday’s opening. Organizers expect 300,000 visitors over 12 days.

Barbara Schneider has been so busy lately, she hasn’t even gone home to sleep.

“Since the 25th of July, I’ve been sleeping right here at the fairgrounds,” said Schneider, 60, standing next to an exhibit of pink and purple petunias and impatiens.

As floriculture superintendent for the Ventura County Fair, Schneider works year-round growing and tending plants at the fairgrounds in Ventura. She also oversees the planting of temporary garden exhibits in the Floriculture Building and its surroundings.

On the eve of Wednesday’s opening, Schneider is one of hundreds of people--including many volunteers--who are scrambling to get ready for the 300,000 visitors expected to attend the 12-day event.

Food vendors are setting up their booths. Carnival mechanics are assembling amusement rides. And volunteers are logging, displaying and judging exhibits.

As the fair date neared, Schneider was busy distributing plants grown in her 35,000-square-foot building throughout the grounds. She has supervised the planting of 73 gardens and floral designs in an area that only weeks ago was dirt-covered ground.

In between her floricultural duties, she helps with the judging in other areas, sampling canned fish, jellies and jams.

“I get a great joy out of it, a great satisfaction,” said the Oxnard resident, who has worked for the fair for 25 years, first as a volunteer and then as a year-round employee. “I’ll match my floriculture against any in the state.”

The fair will open at 11 a.m. and close at midnight every day through Aug. 30. In addition to floriculture, fair-goers can view livestock, aquariums, home arts and photography exhibits. Visitors can go on 40 amusement rides in the carnival, eat corn dogs and barbecue chicken, and compete in pie-eating, lemon juice-drinking and donut-decorating contests.

On Saturday, they can also watch the 1992 Ventura County Fair Parade, led this year by Grand Marshal Paul Leavens Jr. of Santa Paula. Featuring 145 entrants, the parade will start at 10 a.m. at Ventura High School and head west to downtown.

A nightly fireworks display will light the skies at 9:30 p.m. A special 18-minute showing of Castillos, or Mexican fire art, will provide a bright finish to the fair at 8 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30.

The hip-hop rap group Color Me Badd, performing Wednesday, will headline the fair’s entertainment slate, which also includes the Original 5th Dimension, America, midget- and stock-car racing, and professional rodeos. The shows are free with admission: $6 for adults, $3 for youths 6 to 12 and seniors 55 and over.

Exhibits are a traditional staple of the fair, and an entire building is dedicated to giving county youths a chance to show off their talents in arts and crafts, model-building, table-setting and other skills.

In the past week, volunteers such as Assistant Supt. Chris Roper and her family have been helping to create an Old West theme in the 24,000-square-foot Youth Building, where children can see handicrafts being made and learn to do them.

“My daughter got on the phone and called all the guys she could think of,” Roper said.

At the entrance to the Youth Building, a fluorescent, yellow-and-green stuffed dragon named “Scorch” will greet visitors.

The carnival, of course, is another place for youths and adults to play. But rides such as the 120-foot-high Ferris wheel and the huge roller coaster can take five days to assemble on the asphalt parking lot.

Last week, Guy Leavitt, owner of Ray Cammack Shows of Phoenix, was walking the lot with a rolling measuring stick and a can of white spray paint. Leavitt said he was marking off areas for the 40 rides, 60 game booths and five food vendors to set up shop.

The second-generation carnival owner said the hardest part is making sure “it’s all going to fit.”