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How the Royal Court is chosen
Applicants for the Capital Lakefair Royalty Scholarship Program must be a fully-enrolled junior at the time of the application and have a 3.3 cumulative GPA. Each school is limited to three candidates who can apply.
Two rounds of interviews with judges and a three-minute speech given by applicants who clear the first round help narrow the candidates down to the top five applicants.
The five become the Capital Lakefair Royal Court and are eligible to become Lakefair Queen.
In choosing the Queen, the Lakefair Royalty Committee Chair selects five independent judges who assign points to the Lakefair Court members by observing them at community events, meetings and parades at which they participate or speak.
The candidates continue to accumulate points in a last round of interviews and a luncheon with the judges on the day of the Coronation.
The scores are then totaled and the candidate receiving the most points becomes Queen.
Breakdown of scholarship money
• $500 for each of the top 10 candidates who clear the first round of interviews
• $1,500 for the five candidates who clear the next round and become the Royal Court
• $3,000 for the Queen
Information from Lakefair.org
The Olympian
Lakefair's royal controversy
Teen calls treatment 'unjust'
By Matt Batcheldor | The Olympian
OLYMPIA – An Olympia High School senior is taking on Capital Lakefair, saying that festival officials revoked her title as a pageant princess for wearing too many earrings while representing Lakefair at an event and allegedly making negative comments about other princesses.
Jessica Pacheco, 18, says she's the victim of a double standard because the officials won't discipline Lakefair's queen for doing similar things.
Lakefair president Bob Barnes said Pacheco forfeited her title after wearing 10 earrings at the Leavenworth Autumn Leaf Festival in September, where she represented Lakefair, and for "condescending behavior" toward the other princesses, for which she was warned three times. He said that violated a contract the princesses signed.
Pacheco, a Thurston County resident, said she inadvertently wore six earrings to the Leavenworth event — princesses can't have more than two per ear, wardrobe guidelines say — and a Lakefair official said she didn't have to remove them. She said she didn't criticize the other princesses.
She showed printouts of Lakefair queen Maria Anne Noonan's page at myspace.com. The printouts show Noonan with a nose piercing in one photo and holding what appears to be a rifle in another while dressed in her Lakefair gown. On another page, Noonan apparently wrote, "I am better then you." Pacheco said that if her alleged violations get her kicked off the royal court, Noonan should get kicked off, too.
Barnes said Noonan didn't break any rules because she removed a nose ring before becoming a princess, and Lakefair rules don't cover online activity. But they do ban the "display of body piercing or tattoos on any exposed body parts."
Barnes said he didn't know what Pacheco said that was considered inappropriate and what warning was given. He said Lakefair's board of directors decided to end her contract after the violations were reported.
Noonan referred questions to Barnes and Lakefair first vice president Jan Meyers. Her father, Patrick, added, "We're just staying totally out of it."
Documents
- Read the termination and scholarship reinstatement letters sent by the Capital Lakefair committee to the Pacheco family (pdf)
- View print-outs of Lakefair queen Maria Anne Noonan's MySpace page, as provided by the Pacheco family (pdf)
- Read the Capital Lakefair rules and contract, and wardrobe guidelines (pdf)
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