The Cleveland County Fair Board is cancelling much of the 2020 Free Fair's events and attractions as a precaution against the continuing rise of COVID-19 cases in Oklahoma.
NORMAN, Okla. (KFOR) – The Cleveland County Fair Board is cancelling much of the 2020 Free Fair’s events and attractions as a precaution against the continuing rise of COVID-19 cases in Oklahoma.
The fair will be held Sept. 9-12 as previously scheduled, but with several changes.
The event will be limited to livestock showings and open exhibits that are only open to participants and their families. Both are closed to the general public, according to a Cleveland County news release.
“The midway, carnival, vendors, live entertainment and food hall will be closed,” the news release states.
Vendors who already secured a booth will receive a full refund. They will have first choice on retaining their selected booth space for the 2021 Free Fair, according to the news release.
The Fair Board, which consists of nine elected members from all areas of Cleveland County, made the changes to the fair after after hearing from officials from the Cleveland County Health Department and Cleveland County Emergency Management about potential issues that could result from a gathering as large as the county free fair, according to the news release.
“While many fairs across the state have cancelled due to the pandemic, the Fair Board worked together to find a way to protect the public while upholding the traditions of our Free Fair,” said Bryan Jenkins, Cleveland County Fairgrounds Manager. “We have residents who work all year to be a part of the Fair, raising livestock or working on entries, and the Board found a way to honor their work and contributions while we continue to deal with these public health issues.”
Livestock entries will spread across different days to promote extra social distancing.
Livestock, including sheep, meat goats, dairy goats, dairy cattle and poultry, will be checked in Thursday, Sept. 10 from 7-8 p.m. Livestock will be shown, judged and released on the afternoon of Friday, Sept. 11.
Swine and beef will be checked in starting at 7 p.m. Friday. Showing and judging of swine and beef will be the next day.
The board also voted to limit non-livestock exhibits to “open class” exhibits only.
The Free Fair has traditionally featured 4H exhibits, Oklahoma Home & Community Education Exhibits and an open class that any Cleveland County resident can enter
“Exhibits entered through 4H and OHCE normally compete to go to the state fair, since the state fair has been canceled, participants may elect to hold over their qualifying entries until next year when they would be eligible for state competition. All entries this year will be classified as ‘open,'” the news release states.
Open class entries can be brought to the fairgrounds from 3-8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 8. The items can be picked up Thursday afternoon once they are judged.
Click here for more information about the fair.
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