Fair to hold food festival, plans to host grading show
IMPERIAL — The annual California Mid-Winter Fair and Fiesta taking place in its traditional fashion in 2021 remains contingent upon the local health regulations within the next few months.
“We have stated, and will continue to state, that our goal is to hold our annual Fair as we have for the past decades,” the fair’s Chief Executive Officer Alan Phillips said. “Unfortunately, the decision on whether we will be allowed to do that does not lie within the organization. The fair board will continue to monitor local and state guidelines in order to evaluate what we are able to do for 2021.”
The fair’s board of directors, however, has two events in the works to bridge the gap in the meantime.
The first event, a drive-thru fair food festival, has been finalized and will take place this weekend (with more dates scheduled).
The second event, a modified livestock event for youth exhibitors, still remains only an idea with no final approval.
Fair officials are making sure that both these events conform to COVID-19 restrictions, a news release from the fairgrounds stated.
Drive-thru fair food festival
The drive-thru fair food festival will be held at the Fairgrounds on East Second Street in Imperial.
It will allow patrons to drive through the grounds on an established route and get a taste of popular fair favorites at designated stations.
The festival will take place during the next two weekends (Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays).
Its opening day will be from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday.
The festival will then be open from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday.
The festival will resume from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Nov. 6, from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Nov. 7, and from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Nov. 8.
Traffic will enter through the fairground’s main entrance off Second Street.
Menus and maps will be provided when vehicles enter.
The four vendors at the event will be Backyard BBQ, Grand Beverage Corndogs, Funnel Cakes West and Fried Fantasy.
While menu items are subject to change, Backyard BBQ will offer turkey legs, ribs, spiral fries, chicken strips and corn in a cup.
Grand Beverage Corn Dogs will offer corn dogs and pizza bread.
Funnel Cakes West will offer funnel cakes and toppings, and lemonade, while Fried Fantasy will offer candied apples, cotton candy and deep fried confections.
This is only a sampling of the vendors’ menu items. A mobile app, which can be downloaded at my.yapp.us/CMWF, contains additional information on the vendors and full menus with prices.
Phillips said the food festival “is being held to lend support to our fair food vendors who have had a very bleak year in 2020.”
Modified livestock event
The modified and limited livestock event that the fair plans to put on will allow local youths interested in raising market animals this year to raise and market their animals.
This event, however, will feature drastically altered procedures from the traditional small and large animal auctions held in years past.
The event is essentially conceptual at this point. The fair has not received official confirmation from county health officials that it will be a go.
During its meeting in October, the fair board made some decisions to address lingering questions.
The board ultimately approved a recommendation, based on current conditions, to prepare for a grading show for 2021.
“This will certainly be different than our shows in the past and there will be new rules as well as old rules that will be followed,” the board stated in a letter sent to potential exhibitors. “Because this is new for all of us, we don’t have all the new rules and or policies at this time. We will utilize the rules from the 2020 show, and will amend/ change those as needed to accommodate this new show.”
The news release from the fairgrounds listed a few known changes:
■ The show will be terminal: No animals that show will be allowed to go back home nor allowed to be sold to anyone other than a designated processor.
■ Animals will be health checked and any that do not pass will immediately be sent back home with the exhibitor.
■ Exhibitors will receive market price, and the fair will conduct an online add-on process to allow for the community to contribute to the exhibitor projects.
■ All animals will be classified based on weights. There will be no breed classes. At this time, there is no change in the min/max weights, Phillips said Tuesday. They are still the same as last year for the various animal breeds.
■ It will be a dry show. No washing, clipping or grooming of animals will be permitted on the premises.
■ 4-H & FFA will show together (The age limit for 4-H members will be 9 years old, as required per state rules).
■ DNA is still required.
■ The Youth for Quality Care of Animals (YQCA) certification is still required.
The fair board, in partnership with the California Mid-Winter Fair Heritage Foundation, will also be enhancing facility communication infrastructure to allow livestreaming of all the shows.
In terms of what online platform the shows will be livestreamed on, Phillips noted that a few different platforms are still being tested — with YouTube currently being one of the favorites.
Before this livestock event can take place, the fair must submit a plan for approval to the California Department of Food and Agriculture through the Imperial County Health Department.
“So it is important to reiterate that although this is the direction we are going, we can still be told we have to change course,” the letter to potential exhibitors stated. “The California Department of Food and Agriculture has stated market animals are essential to the food chain. With that, fairs have been submitting plans to request conducting a “grading” show, whereby animals are shown (under health and safety parameters) and are graded by a judge for their marketability.”
Phillips reported on Tuesday that the fair is in the beginning stages of submitting a plan to the county.
The plan “will include many requirements, such as masks, distancing and other requirements we have become accustomed to while living in this pandemic. We are uncertain at this time whether we will be allowed to have spectators on site, and, if so, what the requirements and limitations would be,” the letter added.
Members of the El Centro FFA chapter are preparing for this grading show as if it will, in fact, take place, the chapter’s co-advisor Shanna Abatti said Tuesday.
There are currently about 60 members who are doing so.
These FFA members know that there are no guarantees of a fair and that they are doing the project solely for the experience and the learning aspect of the project, Abatti said. “I think that the students are excited to feel a part of something and have something to do by taking care of an animal, and that they are able to follow county health orders and still be active,” she said. Abatti co-advises with Kristin Mayo for the El Centro FFA program, which typically produces about 170 animals annually for the fair.
Similarly, Calipatria FFA chapter advisor Briana Larios is working with four of her FFA members who are raising an animal for this up-in-the-air grading show. The Calipatria FFA chapter had 89 students last year — 53 of whom had animals in the fair.
Larios, however, wasn’t surprised that only a handful of members had an interest this time around in raising an animal.
“I kind of expected it with everything that’s going on,” she said. “I’m just making sure my kids are taken care of.” Larios said these four students have been raising their animals at the school farm at Calipatria High School while following state COVID guidelines.
Not being able to work with any of their other fellow FFA members has taken some of the fun out to the project for the kids, Larios acknowledged.
“They really enjoy just the whole camaraderie,” she said. “This is supposed to be a fun project. But not even knowing if you’re going to show the animal really puts a huge toll actually going forward with it.”