COVID-19 hasn’t nixed the NC State Fair, yet. For now, preparations ‘still underway’
State officials announced the cancellation of the Mountain State Fair on Tuesday, but North Carolina’s biggest show of the fall is still a big question mark: The N.C. State Fair.
On the schedule for October 15-25, the fair is held in Raleigh and put on by North Carolina’s Department of Agriculture. The department has yet to make a decision on whether or not the event will be canceled.
In fact, preparations for the fair are currently underway, just in case the state’s coronavirus trends improve and the event can take place.
“We are monitoring all the guidelines that come out and are having ongoing discussions about options for the 2020 State Fair,” Sarah Ray, a spokesperson for the State Fair, told The News & Observer on Tuesday. “No final decision has been made, but currently preparations for this year’s fair are still underway.”
The State Fair attracted nearly 1 million visitors in 2019, with avenues throughout the fairgrounds often crammed with people shoulder-to-shoulder.
NC agriculture secretary Steve Troxler announced the cancellation of Western North Carolina’s annual fair at a news conference at the Western NC Agriculture Center in Fletcher, N.C., reported The Asheville Citizen Times. The fair had been scheduled for Sept. 11-20.
Drive-thru fair food in Raleigh
To give a taste of the fair outside the traditional October framework, the State Fair crew has been hosting “drive-thru” events this summer, offering some of the fair’s most popular food items to-go. Visitors have enjoyed both deep-fried and frozen fair treats without ever having to leave their cars.
“The drive-thru events were a fun way to engage everyone in a safe way,” Ray said in an email. “We were really happy with the number of people who came out, and having a deep fried Oreo in the early summer was a bonus!”
There is currently a statewide face mask order in effect in North Carolina, which is stalled in Phase 2 of Gov. Roy Cooper’s reopening plan. Restaurants are able to open at limited capacity, but bars and gyms are still closed.
Two large music festivals, Hopscotch and IBMA’s World of Bluegrass, both canceled their downtown Raleigh festivals, previously scheduled for late summer, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Raleigh City Council voted on Tuesday to cancel all festivals, road races and parades through October.
Record-high hospitalizations
Sporting events, concerts and other gatherings have been canceled since the end of March, though NASCAR has held some races with limited fans in attendance (NASCAR’s All-Star Race, scheduled for July 15, has been moved from Charlotte to Bristol, Tenn., because of the high number of coronavirus cases in North Carolina.)
Unfortunately, the coronavirus spread doesn’t appear to be getting better just yet. The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services frequently reports record-high hospitalization numbers, with the percent positive cases still in the 8% to 10% range most days (DHHS secretary Mandy Cohen has said that number needs to be closer to 5%).
North Carolina is one of several states in the nation, along with Texas, Florida and Arizona, with a high rate of COVID-19 infections.
This story was originally published July 7, 2020 at 12:44 PM.
