County fairs weigh risk of outbreak against financial ruin
Laura Stutzmanh ad no doubts that this year's Twin Falls County Fair should go on despite the pandemic still raging across the U.S. — and several outbreaks tied to such community fairs.
Though she saw few people wearing masks from her volunteer station in the fair's hospitality tent in southern Idaho earlier this month, she said she wasn't concerned. Stutzman, 63, had been attending the fair off and on for 30 years, and she didn't consider this year to be that different. People in rural communities know how to respect one another's space, she said, and don't have time to “fret and worry” about the coronavirus.
“Common sense is knowing that COVID-19 is in the picture,” she said, yet not allowing fear to “dictate how we live.”
Hundreds of state and county fairs typically take place across the U.S. each year. They are a centerpiece for the agricultural industry — particularly for the 4-H kids who raise livestock all year to show off at their local events. Thousands of people are drawn to small towns for the concerts, rodeos, races and carnivals that flesh out the experience.
But only about 1 in 5 fairs took place as scheduled this summer, while the rest were dramatically modified or outright canceled because of t he pandemic, according to data provided by the International Association of Fairs & Expositions.
Fairs are the economic lifeblood and cultural high point of the year for many rural communities, so the decision to cancel one is especially consequential. Scaling back can have devastating effects on the finances of the fair organizers and local community. And organizers fear that skipping a single year could mean losing a fair permanently.
“With very few ex ceptions, most fairs get most of their income from one single annual event ,” said Marla Calico, president and CEO of the International Association of Fairs & Expositions. “Some fairs are trying to figure out how they will survive after this.”
In pressing on with their events, many organizers cited the fair's importance to their counties, precisely because of the pandemic — people have been isolated from one another and communities are struggling economically.
One, the Montrose County Fair and Rodeo in Colorado, wanted to give students a chance to show and sell their livestock in person, Montrose County Fairgrounds & Event Center director Emily Sanchez said. Organizers promoted the event on social media with the hashtag #spreadingjoy, which Sanchez said was not intended to be a tongue-in-cheek reference to the pandemic.
“What we noticed was a lot of people saying that this was the worst year,” Sanchez said. “We were just giving people a minute to enjoy the small things.”
Montrose and most other fairs that took place scaled back events and made other changes to try to prevent coronavirus transmission. Fairs posted signs encouraging mask use
and social distancing, and some canceled concerts and carnivaltype attractions. The Fresno County fair in California, which is scheduled for October and typically draws 600,000 people, has been rebranded as a “series of drive-thru and virtual experiences.”
Often, those precautions haven't worked, though, as fairgoers shed masks and gathered in large groups to watch rodeos and other attractions.
Health officials have since traced some COVID-19 outbreaks to fairs. For example, Ohio Gov. Mike De Wine announced restrictions to county fairs after at least 22 cases of COVID-19 were traced back to the Pickaway County Fair in June.
Another fair linked to a COVID outbreak is the Phillips County Fair in the vast plains of northeastern Montana. The organizers of the event in Dodson, a small farming community about 40 miles south of the Canadian border, have long proclaimed that theirs was the longest continuously running fair in the state.
Until the fair took place in early August, Phillips County had another unique distinction: It was one of just a handful of Montana's 56 counties to have no confirmed cases of COVID-19.