Name: Iowa State Fair canceled for the first time since World War II
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Iowa State Fair canceled for the first time since World War II

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Des Moines RegisterView CommentsFor the first time since World War II, summer in Iowa will not include a State Fair.After months of review and discussion, the Iowa State Fair Board voted by secret ballot 11-2 in favor of canceling this year’s event amid continuing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic and the financial impracticality of a socially distant fair.The board also voted to allow fair staff to explore scheduling 4-H and FFA livestock shows in August. The Iowa State Fair had been scheduled for Aug. 13-23.Presiding over a meeting that took just minutes Wednesday, board president Dave Hoffman called the decision “pretty monumental.”The final determination came after one-on-one meetings with board members and discussions with stakeholders in Gov. Kim Reynolds' office and the Iowa Department of Public Health, as well as a review of results from a survey sent out to possible fairgoers, Iowa State Fair CEO Gary Slater said after the vote.Ultimately, the decision came down to a choice between risk and reward:&nbsp;Should organizers offer an event with the bare minimum, or should they wait until all Iowans can have the full State Fair experience again?“We tried every which way in the world to put together a plan that kept people safe and that also completed the mission of the Iowa State Fair,” Slater said. But “it became a challenge to have a fair that we could all enjoy and be proud of.”Considering the limited occupancy on the ground recommended by medical professionals and the considerable drop in attendance suggested by the survey results, the 2020 fair would have been a “shadow” of the fair we know and love, he said.Not only that, but the numbers didn’t work to make moving forward with the fair financially beneficial, Slater said.“Not having a fair and having a socially distant fair lost about the same amount of money,” he said. “To have a fair that broke even, we would have had to have triple the number” of people who said in the survey that they would attend.“It was not even close to breaking even.”The Iowa State Fair was the last big Midwestern fair to decide whether to open for 2020. Rivals Minnesota, Wisconsin and Indiana canceled within the past two weeks because of&nbsp;COVID-19 concerns, joining previously scrapped fairs in Ohio and North Dakota.Nebraska, South Dakota, Kansas and Michigan have said their state fairs&nbsp;will go forward, despite safety risks. Fair leadership&nbsp;in Illinois and Missouri are still weighing options.The Iowa State Fair has been canceled only&nbsp;five times in its 165-year history, and never for a pandemic or large-scale medical crisis. There was no fair in 1898 due to that year's&nbsp;competing World's Fair in Omaha, and World War II dimmed the Grandstand's lights from 1942-1945.Fair events were held during the influenza pandemic that began in 1918 as well as during the polio epidemic.Though all the fairs' management groups stay in contact, each one has a different look and feel, Slater said. The other Midwestern fair groups did not influence the direction the Iowa State Fair took, he said.Slater has long maintained that a determination would be&nbsp;made by June 15 to give fair staff and partners enough time to get the grounds and event schedule prepared for a possible Aug. 13 opening.“You have to base your decision on what we know today,” he said. “We all hope that August would be something, that everything has gone away, but I don't know that we can rely on that to be true. And so we rely on our information and surveys and what we know to be those constraints that we need to operate in today.”Reynolds said in her daily coronavirus press briefing that she had been in contact with fair staff recently to learn what information they were gathering and how they were determining if they could pull off a fair with reduced attendance. However, she said she did not make a recommendation to the board on whether or not to hold the fair.“I stand by whatever decision they make,” she said. “I appreciate they’ve really been thoughtful and taking the time. They've not rushed this decision, giving Iowa and Iowans an opportunity to respond.”Reynolds also distanced her Wednesday proclamation lifting 50% capacity restrictions&nbsp;on businesses from any decision the fair board would make, saying fair staff would have to consider health precautions like any other business.“You have to remember they've had a lot of participants that typically make up the Iowa State Fair, that are not going, that have already canceled,” she added.Indeed, the famous Bill Riley Talent Search, which has brought talented youngsters from across Iowa to perform at the State Fair for the past 60 years, called off the 2020 competition in May."To my knowledge, it's never been postponed in the past," Bill Riley Jr. told the Register. "It's heartbreaking. I'm really going to miss what I call 'summer season.' "Country music superstar Chris Stapleton postponed his Grandstand show to next year, saying in a statement that&nbsp;the decision was made "with the health and safety of our fans, touring family, and the communities we travel through" in mind.Asked if there was any public health opinion regarding if the fair should move forward, Dr. Caitlin Pedati said Wednesday that all of the safety guidelines they’ve sent to businesses&nbsp;—&nbsp;frequent hand-washing, social distancing —&nbsp;would “continue to be important things regardless of which setting we're talking about at this point.”U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said during his weekly press call that he would not “bad mouth” the judgment of public health officials, but that he “sure would miss the Iowa State Fair.”“I've heard my wife three or four times —&nbsp;maybe more than three or four times —&nbsp;in the last month (say) she wants to go to the State Fair,” he said. “We haven't missed the State Fair since 1974. And before 1974, we periodically went to state fairs.”“It's not just the Grassleys that love it,” he said, adding that he would wear a mask if asked. “It's an Iowa tradition.”Many of Iowa’s favorite spring and summer traditions have become casualties to coronavirus this year.The Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, better known as RAGBRAI, made the "difficult decision" to cancel in April, citing an inability to ensure riders' safety due to the spreading pandemic. The Des Moines Art Fest and 80/35, the annual music festival in Western Gateway, also canceled their 2020 events.All are major economic drivers for the state, but the State Fair is a financial juggernaut for many local bottom lines, bringing more than a million people and&nbsp;roughly $100 million in economic impact to the Des Moines metro&nbsp;over its 11-day run.Year-round, about 60 people work for the Iowa State Fair, its&nbsp;website reports, but nearly 3,000 people are hired by the fair and outside exhibitors when the grounds open to the public.Canceling the State Fair would&nbsp;be a "huge" hit to the local economy, Greg Edwards, president of Catch Des Moines, previously told the Register."Most all of our hotels are pretty well full on both the weekends&nbsp;of the fair," Edwards said,&nbsp;"and they also see a big increase in occupancy during the middle of the week, too."While the fair may be the big draw, Edwards said that visitors often spend money at restaurants, shopping malls and other entertainment venues&nbsp;while they're in the metro."During the time of the fair, other big attractions benefit," he said. "Adventureland and the Blank Park Zoo have some of their biggest weeks of the year during the run of the State Fair."The fair itself will have to reduce expenses over the next few months, Slater said, adding that 90% of the fair’s income is made in August.But vendors and campers shouldn’t fear any major changes, Slater said.“My motto is faith, family and fairs, and faith means integrity,” Slater said. “We will do the right thing with our vendors. Those that have their spots will retain those spots for next year.”Like Slater, officials for many of the already canceled fairs have said that the necessary precautions they would have to put in place to limit the spread of coronavirus would diminish visitors’ experiences, and possibly put too big a strain on the institutions, financially.In Minnesota, the fair most like Iowa’s, fair manager Jerry Hammer told the Star Tribune that social distancing was near impossible on the fairgrounds and that anything they came up with would be "unrecognizable" and could put the fair "in a hole we might never come out of.""To all the folks who say they’d come no matter what, well, thanks, but it wouldn’t be anything you’d recognize,” Hammer told the Star Tribune.In the months that Iowa State Fair staff was monitoring the COVID-19 situation and looking at options, Slater previously said that the fair board and employees have been "humbled" by the words of encouragement they've received from fans far and wide.Their main goal in making this difficult decision, Slater said, is&nbsp;to “preserve the grand tradition of the Iowa State Fair.”“If they'll hang on for these next 14 months," Slater said, "and our scientists and our medical professionals take care of the pandemic that we're faced with, we will have a great State Fair and will be back to celebrate everything that's good in Iowa.”Courtney Crowder, the Register's Iowa Columnist, traverses the state's 99 counties telling Iowans' stories. Her favorite State Fair Food is the Bauder's Peppermint Bar.&nbsp;Reach her at or 515-284-8360. Follow her on Twitter .Your subscription makes work like this possible. Subscribe today at .View Comments

Des Moines RegisterView CommentsFor the first time since World War II, summer in Iowa will not include a State Fair.After months of review and discussion, the Iowa State Fair Board voted by secret ballot 11-2 in favor of canceling this year’s event amid continuing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic and the financial impracticality of a socially distant fair.The board also voted to allow fair staff to explore scheduling 4-H and FFA livestock shows in August. The Iowa State Fair had been scheduled for Aug. 13-23.Presiding over a meeting that took just minutes Wednesday, board president...

Iowa State Fair canceled for the first time since World War II

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