Reversing course, board cancels Kansas State Fair for first time in 106-year history
For the first time in its 106-year history, the annual Kansas State Fair won’t take place.
The Kansas State Fair Board on Monday voted to cancel the 10-day event, reversing course on a decision just two weeks ago to proceed as planned albeit with some restrictions.
The annual cotton-candy and amusement-ride filled rite that marks the end of summer for many Kansans survived the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak and both World Wars, the fair said in a news release.
But COVID-19 proved too menacing a foe to go on, especially after several large vendors announced they were pulling out.
The fair board said Monday that vendors’ decisions not to attend amid coronavirus concerns, as well as other circumstances, “forced them to reconsider.”
The first official Kansas State Fair was held in Hutchinson in 1913.
“While we knew this year’s Fair was going to be different, we realized we weren’t going to be able to provide the same annual tradition that Fairgoers have come to expect,” fair board president Harmon Bliss said in a prepared statement that followed Monday’s vote.
“While we are heartbroken there will not be a Kansas State Fair this year, we want to make sure the Fair is on solid footing for another 100 years.”
The event, which had been scheduled for Sept. 11-20, injects around $74.6 million into the Kansas economy each year and has a roughly $40-million impact within a 60-mile radius of the state fair grounds in Hutchinson, according to a 2018 state department of agriculture report.
Despite the cancellation, the fair board said it’s working to preserve some beloved traditions. Staff is planning to host both open class and youth livestock shows over three weekends, beginning on the Labor Day holiday weekend, according to the news release. The state’s premier Grand Drive youth show, for example, is scheduled for Sept. 11-13.
For more information on livestock events, visit https://bit.ly/2020KSFLivestock.oard.
The board will consider hosting other activities next month.
The fair, in the news release, said some vendors who travel as part of a fair circuit opted to pull out of September celebration because they “couldn’t feasibly travel just to Kansas” after other fairs in the Midwest canceled their events.
Others reported worker shortages or not wanting to put their employees at risk of contracting COVID-19.
On June 30, the fair board voted 8-5 to hold the fair as usual but with a requirement that people wear face masks indoors, encouragement to wear masks elsewhere, one-way traveling inside buildings and new food-handling guidelines that would have banned self-serve condiments.
But in the approximately two weeks since that decision, cases of the coronavirus disease in Reno County have increased at a rate more than double that of the state.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported 74 cases of COVID-19 in Reno County on June 29. On Monday, there were 141. The increase of 67 cases is a percent change of about 90.5%. The Kansas case total increased by 5,615 cases, or about 38.9% over the two weeks, to 20,058 on Monday.
If you already bought gate admission tickets, packages or food tickets, the fair says those will be valid next year.
Staff is trying to reschedule grandstand shows, and any tickets already purchased for those acts will be honored at the 2021 Kansas State Fair if the performances are rescheduled.
You can also get a refund. The fair will announce details on how to do that soon.
“We don’t know what the situation in Kansas will look like in September. But decisions must be made on what we know today,” Bliss said in the statement. “Not seeing families and friends in 2020 will be disappointing. After all, the Kansas State Fair is not just an event. It is a tradition. It is a way of life. It is a showcase of the best of Kansas.”
But, Bliss said: “The 2021 Fair will be bigger and better, and we can’t wait to once again be a destination for families and friends to gather to make those lasting memories.”
Contributing: Jason Tidd of The Eagle
This story was originally published July 13, 2020 at 10:16 AM with the headline "Reversing course, board cancels Kansas State Fair for first time in 106-year history."
