This year’s Hopkinton State Fair, which would have marked the 105th year of festivities on Labor Day weekend, has been canceled due to public health concerns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.
“The health and safety of everyone takes precedence during this unprecedented time,” according to an announcement from the fair’s board of directors.
Hopkinton State Fair now joins eight other county or agricultural fairs in the state that have decided to postpone this year’s festivities to 2021. Only three of the state’s eleven annual fairs – Hillsborough Country Agricultural Fair, Rochester Fair, and Deerfield Fair – have not yet canceled, according to the New Hampshire Association of Fairs and Expositions. Those three fairs are all held in September or October.
Paul Thurston, president of the New Hampshire Fair Association, said under the current social distancing orders “it’s going to be impossible” for fairs to open to the public.
Fairs are social events, he said, and it would be too difficult to force fairgoers to stay six feet apart on bleachers and in the grandstands. And while he said it’s “very disappointing” to see so many of the state’s fairs closing, it is “for the benefit of everybody” that they not open this year.
Andrew Pyteraf, assistant to the Hopkinton fair’s board of directors, said that the decision to cancel for the year was the result of meetings with the local fire department, police, and public health officials.
“With all the other fairs canceling, it just didn’t seem to be a good idea to move forward in order to keep all the participants and guests and the community safe,” Pyteraf said.
Additionally, concerns about giving proper notice to performers and vendors who would have participated in this year’s event required halting the planning process with enough time to spare, Pyteraf said.
Pyteraf noted that getting “all your ducks in a row” before such a large event – approximately 70,000 people attend each year – requires too much planning to be saved for a month before the fair.
Pyteraf emphasized that though this year’s festivities can’t go on, the fair isn’t going anywhere. Next year, “it’ll be back stronger than ever,” he said. “The fair is very secure, and everything will just be shifted to 2021.”
Many fairgoers were disappointed with the cancellation but supported the board’s decision in posts on the fair’s Facebook page. Others expressed frustrations, writing that it was “ridiculous” or “ludicrous” to cancel three months in advance.
One commenter wrote that it is “time to move on with life and stop living in fear,” while another said the directors’ reasoning about public health concerns was a “phony excuse” for not being able to recoup operating expenses due to low attendance.
Since the Deerfield Fair is the last of the season, its board of directors will make a final decision in July.
Deerfield Fair Vice President Richard Pitman said he’s still optimistic about the possibility of opening the fair on Oct. 1. It usually attracts more than 100,000 visitors over a four day period.
Pitman said if it does happen, it’s “not going to be the same fair” as it has been for the past 140-plus years.
Rides will have to be sanitized, the number of visitors will have to be cut down by half or more, and wearing masks might stop fairgoers from enjoying the classic flavors of fair concessions. “There have been a lot of sleepless nights trying to make this work,” Pitman said.
Above all, Pitman does not want to jeopardize the health of the staff and visitors, many of whom come from out of state, and if the fair is allowed to happen, it will follow strict health guidelines to keep everyone safe, he said.