Finally, some good news during this summer of cancellation.
The Belmont County fair—the full fair—will still be held this September at the fairgrounds outside St. Clairsville.
Ed Campbell, president of the Belmont County Agricultural Society, made the announcement Thursday night on the fair’s Facebook page.
Many similar fairs around the Buckeye state are cancelled. Some are limiting availability to the junior fair only.
Currently, Harrison, Jefferson, and Monroe counties are listed as junior-fair only. Restrictions easing as they are, that could change.
But Belmont’s board waited for word from the governor’s office, hoping for good news.
They received it, thus staving off another partial cancellation.
“It was at one time in jeopardy of being cancelled,” Campbell admitted. “We were never considering a full cancellation, but the past several weeks, we talked about having just the junior fair side of it.
“But with the restrictions lifted and after talking with the health department and others, we figured a full fair was the option to go with.”
Fans of truck pulls and greasy food, carnival games ,and amusement rides can now rejoice.
Patience Was a Virtue
It helps when your fair is scheduled for September and not, say, June.
Such is the case with the Belmont County fair, set for September 3-8.
That late date allowed the board members to be patient in waiting to decide.
The first domino to fall in the county fair cancellation wave came in Marion County. Its board opted for junior fair only during a May 1 announcement.
Others followed, including the Ohio State Fair’s full cancellation announced on May 21.
Within the last few weeks, Monroe and Jefferson counties went to junior fair only, as did Harrison.
Nearby Guernsey County also waited and, like Belmont, announced on its Facebook page Thursday night a decision to move forward with the full fair.
“It did pay off, certainly,” Campbell said of the move to wait. “We didn’t want to make a hasty decision going forward with this, so we took our time and made sure we looked at every avenue.”
Campbell said it hasn’t been confirmed, but he did hear of the possibility other local fairs are exploring returning to a full offering.
Waiting and potentially having to cancel late posed less problems than pulling the trigger early, with possibly having to reschedule cancelled events later.
What, If Any Changes?
One area that will see some changes is entertainment.
No, the truck and tractor pull, and the derby are still being held; more on that in a moment.
But some of the musical entertainment that usually takes place at the Robinson Stage area is being altered.
“Right now, we’re looking at some of the entertainment is going to have to be changed as far as what we have on stage,” Campbell said. “Being in confined spaces, we have to keep our social distancing.”
The animal barns also will feature one way in and one way out traffic to cut down on clustering and log jams of fair goers.
Sanitation facilities also will see a more regular cleaning.
And the motor sports events that fans line the track to see?
“We’re allowed to have up to 2,500 people in attendance there,” Campbell said. “There will be some changes. We will be constantly announcing to remind about social distancing, and there will be spacing set up in the bleachers.
“Families are permitted to sit together. It’s going to be a tough situation to handle, but we feel we are capable of doing it.”
What About the Rides?
Thursday evening the fair board held two different meetings.
One of those features the executive board, representatives of the health department, a Belmont County Commissioner, the sheriff’s department, and the amusement company contracted for the fair.
All the necessary and requested steps the board asked of the ride operator were discussed and agreed upon.
So yes, rides and carnival games will be their usual fair staple along the midway.
“|They were asked by us and the health department to put a plan into effect of what they are doing,” Campbell said. “Sanitizing the rides more frequently will be big, but we all came up with an agreement, and that’s what we wanted to do.”
