Nationwide, many county or state fairs are continuing with major changes.

Nationwide, pandemic curbs traditional event

TOLEDO, Ohio — Well before the sun rises and then again after school, Arrissa Swails feeds and waters her goats, fancy chickens and three dairy cows. There’s another trip to the barn at night to hustle the chickens into their coop.

It’s a daily routine that typically takes the high school senior at least three hours.

This week, she’d be parading her livestock at the Hancock County Fair, hoping to win a grand champion ribbon during her last turn in the show ring. But there is no fair this year, another tradition erased from the 2020 calendar by the coronavirus.

“I bawled my eyes out,” she said about the fair’s first cancellation since World War II. “Honestly, it means everything to me. It’s definitely weird this year without it.”

Not many county or state fairs are continuing on without major changes, and about 80 percent have been called off or drastically scaled down by eliminating carnival rides, concerts and tractor pulls, according to the International Association of Fairs and Expositions.

The losses have been monumental — the association estimates the total is nearing $4 billion for fair organizations.

To make up some of the difference, a group of Republicans and Democrats in Congress are backing legislation introduced in July that would direct $500 million to agricultural fairs nationwide.

But for those who have spent the past year feeding, cleaning and working with their animals in hopes of winning a blue ribbon and maybe some money for college, there is no replacing the missed fair experiences.

“I just love walking the goats in, they’re so happy in the show ring,” said Swails, who has been in 4-H the past eight years. “We have this one, she looks forward to the fair, she’s happy and content at the fair.”

Just like at home, she stays with her animals during fair week from morning until late at night. Hanging out in the barns, camping at the fairgrounds and competing in the judging allowed her to come out of her shell at a young age and meet many new people, said the 18-yearold who lives near the village of Jenera in northwestern Ohio.

“This was my last chance,” she said.

In rural America, the county fair remains a cherished institution with agriculture its centerpiece even though farm families now represent less than 2 percent of the nation’s population.

“I call it the farmers’ family reunion,” said Jacki Johnson, who has spent 41 years volunteering as a 4-H adviser in Ohio’s Hancock County.

It was hardly a surprise, though, when fair organizers decided to scrap this year’s event for only the second time since it began in 1938. The decision came just a few weeks after the county’s fair board said it needed to raise $80,000 because the pandemic limited some business donations and forced cancellation of other money-making events at the fairgrounds.

“It’s so frustrating to see the sadness on the kids’ faces,” Johnson said.

Tony Dejak The Associated Press Livestock devotee Arrissa Swails and her cow, Honey, in Jenera, Ohio, don’t have a Hancock County Fair in which to compete.