"Agricultural fair" means a fair or exhibition intended to promote agriculture by having a balanced variety of exhibits of livestock and agricultural products; agriculture related arts and manufactures; products of the farm home; and educational contests, displays, and demonstrations designed to train youth and to promote the importance of agriculture and support rural economic development. There are five categories of agricultural fairs: Area fairs, community fairs, county fairs, district fairs, and youth shows or fairs.

"Allocation" means amounts from the state fair fund, the account established in RCW 15.76.115, allocated to agricultural fair categories.

"Area fair" means an agricultural fair with both open and junior participation and an extensive diversification of classes, displays, and exhibits. Area fairs serve an area larger than one county; have organized governing boards of directors; are nonprofit; show evidence of community support; and are not under county commissioner jurisdiction.

"Community fair" means an agricultural fair with either or both open or junior classes, displays or exhibits. Community fairs do not have as extensive diversification of classes, displays, or exhibits as area, county, or district fairs. Community fairs serve an area smaller than areas served by area, county, and district fairs; have organized governing boards of directors; are nonprofit; and show evidence of community support. There may be more than one community fair in a county.

"County fair" means an agricultural fair with both open and junior participation but not as extensive diversification of classes, displays, and exhibits as an area fair. County fairs are authorized by RCW 36.37.050, serve a single county, and are under the jurisdiction of a board of county commissioners.

"Department" means the Washington state department of agriculture.

"Director" means the director of the Washington state department of agriculture.

"District fair" means an agricultural fair with both open and youth participation but not as extensive diversification of classes, displays, and exhibits as an area fair. District fairs are authorized by RCW 36.37.050, serve more than one county, and are under county commission jurisdiction.

"Operating expenses" means the amount awarded for premiums and awards; expenses for special agricultural education and demonstrations; judges' fees; staffing expenses; and other expenses used to operate an agricultural fair.

"Premiums and awards" means anything of value given as a reward or incentive for exhibits and educational contests, displays, and demonstrations of an educational nature. Premiums and awards do not include livestock sale revenues, nor anything of value given as a reward or incentive for promotional or entertainment activities, such as queen contests, parades, dances, rodeos, and races.

"Reimbursement" means a proportion of an allocation distributed to eligible applicants as reimbursement for operating costs incurred according to the requirements of chapter 15.76 RCW and this chapter.

"Youth fair or show" means a 4-H or FFA agricultural fair with the purpose of educating and training youth in agriculture and life skills. Youth fairs or shows serve three or more counties; must be approved by an approving agency; have organized governing boards of directors; are nonprofit; and show evidence of community support.

"Youth fair or show approving agency" means either the Washington State University, which approves 4-H fairs and shows, or the office of the superintendent of public instruction, which approves FFA fairs and shows.

(1) Agricultural fairs must use reimbursement application forms supplied by the department. Applicants for reimbursement must include all information requested by the application forms including, but not limited to, the number of exhibits and exhibitors, the amount awarded for premiums and awards, and operating expenses.

(2) An area, county, or district fair applying for a reimbursement must submit to the director an annual application and a certified auditor's report of operating expenses on or before February 15th in the year following the fair.

(3) A community fair applying for a reimbursement must submit to the director an annual notarized application on or before December 1st in the year of holding the fair.

(4) Youth fairs or shows applying for a reimbursement must submit to the director an annual notarized application on or before December 1st in the year of holding the fair. The department will submit a copy of each youth fair or show application to the approving agency.

Any agricultural fair, except for single species youth shows, applying for reimbursement of operating expenses must:

(1) Provide special activities for youth training and development, such as judging contests, educational demonstrations, and displays.

(2) Hold all activities to be considered as part of the fair on consecutive days. A fair may hold a portion of these activities up to seven days before the first day of the fair.

(3) Have all displays or exhibits in one place and open to the public for at least a seven-hour period.

Any fair not qualifying under WAC 16-700-022 may apply to the director for a review of its circumstances and the director has discretion to determine eligibility in consideration of those circumstances on a case-by-case basis.

(1) After allocation to fair categories, fairs commissioners evaluate agricultural fairs to help determine the distribution of reimbursement according to the merit rating.

(2) Fairs commissioners evaluating agricultural fairs have discretion in award of merit points.

(3) In determining the merit of agricultural fairs, the fairs commissioners use standards based on the following criteria:

(a) Aims and purposes: Evidence of successful achievement of the fair or show's stated aims and purposes. Fairs and shows should have a written statement prominently displayed to the public that describes the reason or purposes for which the fair or show is held.

(b) Organization and management: The extent to which the organization, its officers and management, and the physical facilities and financial resources are geared to accomplish the objectives stated in the written statement of aims and purposes.

(c) General attractiveness: The agricultural, educational, commercial and recreational features that help make the fair attractive to the fairgoing public.

(d) Exhibits: The number, quality and diversity of exhibits and their general rating judged by recognized standards of excellence, as well as their neatness and orderliness in all departments, in open and junior classes.

(i) To qualify for the maximum number of animal exhibit merit points, fairs should have three or more large animal categories, such as beef, sheep, swine, horses, dairy, goats, and llamas; and three or more small animal categories, such as dogs, cats, poultry, rabbits, cavies, and pocket pets.

(ii) To qualify for the maximum number of still life exhibit merit points, fairs should have three or more still life categories, such as baked goods, food preservation, clothing and sewn items, decorative arts, fine arts, photography, horticulture, crops, floriculture, crafts and hobbies, ag mechanics, and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) exhibits.

(iii) Animal-only fairs and shows are exempt from the still life requirement.

(e) Community, county or area interest: The participation and support from the area served as indicated by attendance, both paid and total; and by active support from service clubs, farm organizations and other groups.

(f) Success of the fair: How successful the fair appears, measured by its accomplishment in relation to resources available.

(4) In the case of youth fairs and shows, fair commissioners also consider to the extent to which the show or fair supplements youth programs; provides opportunities for showing results of supervised training in these programs; and provides special activities for youth development, such as judging contests, educational demonstrations, banquets, barbecues, programs, or other supervised recreation.

The department must reserve not less than five thousand dollars for the purpose of making disaster grants to fairs that have experienced disasters resulting from fire, flood, wind, snow, earthquake or other acts of God.