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State Fair cancelled over COVID-19 concerns

FAIRLEA, W.Va. — After initially indicating they would put together a plan to hold the 96th State Fair of West Virginia, the fair board made an abrupt change this week and cancelled the 2020 event.

Kelly Collins

“It was a combination of things. Initially when our board voted to move forward the numbers of COVID-19 were looking better, we had guidelines from the state, and we had our own operational plan which added to the state’s guidelines,” Fair CEO Kelly Collins told MetroNews Thursday. “We were feeling pretty confident, but we had an outbreak here in the local area and if you look across the country at a lot of tourist sites, you can see numbers starting to creep up.”

More than 30 new COVID-19 cases have been confirmed this week in Greenbrier County following a outbreak at Greystone Baptist Church in Lewisburg.

The board made the decision after consultation with local and state health officials. It was a gut wrenching decision for everybody involved, especially Collins.

“The fair has been a part of my life every summer since I was born, so on a personal level and of course on a professional level it was a heartbreaking decision,” she said.

Fair officials were hopeful the event could happen. In late May they were waiting on guidelines from Gov. Jim Justice’s office. Justice announced the State Fair was a go in his June 11 media briefing.

“I’m sure the guidelines that we’re giving and that the State Fair’s giving are going to be the best possible that we can do. It’s not perfect, we know it’s not perfect,” Justice said last Thursday.

Gov. Jim Justice

Collins said within a matter of hours after that announcement information started to surface about the church outbreak. Collins said it was too much to overcome.

The last time the State Fair of West Virginia was cancelled was from 1942 to 1945 for World War II.

The financial hit to the fair will be a hard one and Collins anticipated it will take creative decisions to navigate the difficult financial times which undoubtedly will lie ahead.

“Every ounce of business we’ve had has unfortunately had to be cancelled this year. We’re going to have to get creative to see what we can do to help get some funding to support the facility and sit back for a little bit and see what we can do,” Collins said.

The fair isn’t the only one taking a financial hit. The junior livestock show and sale is a very important event to those 4-H and FFA members who raised animals and depend on the sale to cover the cost of their projects. Collins said they’ll have an announcement soon about hopefully still having the junior livestock sale. But, the financial pain from the decision will be felt in a lot of places.

“The State Fair has a $13.8 million economic impact on West Virginia. It’s not just the State Fair that is losing, it’s our vendors, the carnival, the livestock exhibitors and the local hotels. It’s a huge loss for not only Greenbrier County and the State Fair, but for the state of West Virginia as well.”

Collins said planning is now immediately underway for the 2021 State Fair of West Virginia.





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