Festival and fair planners have faced uncertainties over the last year
Herald-Standard
Sun behind this midway ride begins to shine after a storm at the 2019 Fayette County Fair at the fairgrounds in Dunbar Township. The fair makes its return this year after being canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Herald-Standard
In this 2019 photo, crowds travel the midway at the 65th annual Fayette County Fair at the fairgrounds in Dunbar Township.
When we’re sipping our hot chocolate and sporting bulky sweaters in the dead of winter, organizers are planning for the festivals and fairs that are summertime staples.
In a typical year, they can go about the routine business of lining up vendors, booking musical acts and ordering portable restrooms without worrying too much about what the landscape is going to look like when the sun is high in the sky and people will be chasing away sweat with cold refreshments. Over the last 12 months, however, as COVID-19 ebbed and flowed, organizers had to consider if they could proceed as usual, not proceed at all, or if they could go forward in some modified fashion.
Consider the annual art fair that happens in Ann Arbor, Mich., every July. One of the largest art fairs in the country, first it was going to happen. Then, organizers announced it would be canceled. Two weeks later, they did an about-face and announced it was on again, thanks to restrictions in the state being loosened by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Closer to home at the Fayette County Fair, Bill Jackson, president of the fair board, said, to the best of his knowledge, the fair has never been canceled before 2020.
“We put a lot of energy and time and planning into it, so we were very disappointed that it didn’t happen last year,” he said.
However, Jackson said he and the other fair board members are excited to see the fair come back and with no apparent COVID-19-related restrictions in place.
“If people want to take their own precautions on an individual basis, they certainly are welcomed to do so,” Jackson said, adding that the board has installed additional hand-sanitizing stations on the fairgrounds.
He said some other residual effects of COVID-19 may be apparent at this year’s fair, including food vendors having staffing issues.
“There’s a good chance we might not have a few food vendors that people are used to,” Jackson said, adding that they’re trying to fill spots the best they can while offering features at the fair that people have come to expect. “Our lineup is as full as always.”
Not only is the excitement growing with the fair’s organizers, Jackson said he’s seen people’s excitement with their wallets. The fair’s advance ticket sales normally don’t start selling until closer to the start of the fair, but this year sales have taken off earlier than usual.
“In general, I think people are looking to get things back to normal,” Jackson said. “We’re just hoping for great weather, great crowds, and we’re happy to be back.”
The fair runs from July 29 to Aug. 7.
In neighboring Washington County, Washington’s Whiskey Rebellion Festival, which was called off last year like most other events, will be happening this year. But rather than a multi-day celebration of the city’s heritage, it has been reduced to one day of festivities scheduled for next Saturday. The decision was made to modify it in March, and “our hope was to do it even if it was going to be pared down,” said Joe Piszczor, co-chairman of the festival.
“We always had a contingency plan,” Piszczor added. “We were operating under a couple of different options.”
He pointed out that they were concerned they would not be able to line up a sufficient number of volunteers if they had gone ahead with a full festival, and older artists and vendors were going to stay away thanks to lingering coronavirus concerns. Also, businesses that have traditionally supported the festival have endured their own tough times over the last 15 months or so.
Nevertheless, Piszczor explained, “We have a lot of cool new attractions,” in the festival, and it will be “a healing experience for all of us.”
“People miss seeing other people,” he added. “They realize interpersonal relationships are important.”
At about the same time it was announced the Whiskey Rebellion Festival was on, organizers of the Westmoreland Arts and Heritage Festival near Latrobe said they would be pulling the plug on it for the second year in a row. It had been set for this weekend, and, at the time its cancellation was announced, the festival’s board said in a statement that the event would not be able to offer “the enriching and entertaining experience that they have come to love and expect due to the current restrictions and mandates.”
Of course, those restrictions are now gone. Are there any regrets about calling it off?
“In hindsight, we could have gone ahead and had the festival, but April is our critical month,” said Diane Shrader, the festival’s executive director. That’s when they pull together advertising, she said, and when they had to line up shuttle buses, volunteers and vendors.
“There are a lot of things we had to consider,” Shrader pointed out.
Plans are already being hatched for the festival to make an in-person return next June 30. In the meantime, a virtual component of the festival will go forward this year.