No Ferris wheel, cotton candy, games, livestock shows or other attractions of a county fair are in store this year in Mount Airy as part of the seemingly never-ending wild ride powered by COVID-19.
The latest cancellation casualty of the coronavirus locally is the Surry County Agricultural Fair, which had been scheduled to mark its 73rd year with an eight-day run at Veterans Memorial Park from Sept.12-19.
Whether or not the fair would be held was still a question mark as of Wednesday, but a subsequent governing board discussion led to an official of the event making the grim announcement regarding its fate Thursday.
“We are canceling the fair for 2020,” said Katherine Thorpe, its longtime co-manager.
Fair officials had been in a kind of holding pattern while monitoring the status of COVID-19, which has put the clamps on large public gatherings with the imposition of health restrictions.
“We were kind of waiting — everybody was sort of on edge about what to do,” Thorpe added Thursday.
“With the virus increasing, we thought it would be better (to cancel).”
The scrapping of the Surry County Agricultural Fair for this year came on the heels of the cancellation earlier in the week of the October North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh for the first time since World War II. This was expected to trigger a domino effect for county fairs held in late summer and fall across the state.
Another catalyst for the decision locally, Thorpe said, involved uncertainty surrounding the availability of Powers and Thomas Midway Entertainment, a Wilmington-based company that has provided attractions including rides and games at the Surry fair for the past four years.
Powers and Thomas has not participated in other events it normally does during the summer in states such as Pennsylvania and New York. “They haven’t been able to set up anywhere,” Thorpe said.
“With our fair dates being this close (about six weeks off), it would have been hard to get everything going.”
Above all, the health and safety of the public was the overriding factor in the decision, according to the fair official. “We want safety first.”
Hopefully, COVID-19 eventually will run its course, Thorpe said, with fair officials now hoping for “a better year next year.”
The cancellation of the 2020 Surry County Agricultural Fair is the second major blow dealt to Veterans Memorial Park event-wise this year.
Coronavirus fears prompted the same outcome for the 49th-annual Mount Airy Bluegrass and Old-Time Fiddlers Convention normally staged in June at the West Lebanon Street facility.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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