It is with heavy hearts that the Winnebago County Fair Association (WCFA) Board of Directors announces the cancellation of this year’s Winnebago County Fair set for August 5-9, 2020.
The Fair Board has spent many hours the last two months researching and debating the COVID-19 pandemic, its impact on our community (health-wise, financially and emotionally) and our options under these uncertain circumstances. Our final decision to cancel comes after recent health and safety discussions with our county partners (Health Department, Sunnyview Exposition Center, Extension 4-H Youth Development and the County Board’s Committee on Education, Extension and Agriculture) as well as with our carnival, entertainers, vendors and superintendents.
We would like to thank all of our fair-goers, entertainers, vendors, volunteers and partners for their patience and support as we made this difficult decision and took the time to examine all options available to us. In particular, we would like to thank our exhibitor community for all of the brainstorming, ideas and offers for extra volunteer hours & financial support. Your enthusiasm and support for the young people of Winnebago County is impressive. We know how disappointing this decision is for our exhibitors in particular and we encourage all of you to continue to pursue your passions, develop your skills and increase your knowledge in your project areas. Your hard work has many rewards, only one of them being the County Fair experience.
The ultimate goal of a County Fair is to bring the community together in celebration and education. As we researched and debated all the ways to continue with our fair this year, we realized that every one of them left out a significant part of our fair family. A celebration that leaves out any part of our fair family is not a celebration worth having. The County Fair has been #FAIRSTRONG in Winnebago County for 165 years and we plan to be here for the next 165 years and more. We are grieving the loss of this year’s county fair along with the rest of you. We look forward to bringing our fair family back together in 2021, when we can truly celebrate everything we will have overcome and accomplished this past year.
We are all in this together.
Thank you for being kind and supporting each other, our community, our businesses and our organizations as we each make difficult decisions on how to best navigate the current challenges of our world.
Stay Safe. Stay Positive. Stay #FAIRSTRONG.
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