County Fair wraps up: Rides’ return, good weather, COVID-19 affect attendance

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BUCYRUS — Challenges popping up from the Covid-19 pandemic didn’t seem to deter people from attending the Crawford County Fair this year, as hundreds of exhibitors and guests walked through the gates to enjoy some fun-filled summer days last week.

Crawford County Agricultural Society President Roger Auck said he and the rest of the board were pleased with the turnout and deemed the fair a success.

“Everything went well. We had a good week for the fair,” Auck said. “The temperatures were nice and we had nice crowds.”

After a state-wide face-covering mandate started at 6 p.m. Thursday, Auck said he didn’t notice a drop in attendance. “The crowds were still there,” he said. “A lot of them were outside and kept their distance from each other so they didn’t have to wear the masks.”

Kids showing animals as part of a 4H group range from the ages of 9 to 18, Auck explained. He said all the livestock shows and the sale were well-attended, again with people keeping social distancing in mind.

“People even commented on the things that we did with the wash stations and the restroom attendants,” he said. “They thought we went above and beyond that stuff to make it safe for people.”

Besides the livestock shows, Auck said overall some of the most popular events were the demolition derby, and the tractor pull.

“The calf scramble and the truck pull were pretty popular, too,” he said. “We watched our capacity in the grandstand. We could only go up to 50-percent and we cut our tickets off at 50 percent.

“The livestock sale on Saturday was decent, but I don’t have any figures on that yet,” he noted. “I heard that some bids are open for another week yet, so we won’t have those final figures.”

“We also had good attendance with the rides. A lot of people were riding the rides,” Auck added. “We had a nice set of rides there and they were good clean rides.

“We were probably down about 20 percent on our vendors this year,” he said. “The 4H lunch stand didn’t open this year because the kids run that. They stand out there taking orders and there would have been too many kids in there at one time so they just decided not to open. But next year they plan on opening it again like we always have.”

Looking toward future fairs, Auck said they need to keep things as they did this year safety-wise.

“If we need to adjust to things we’ll do that,” he said. “If other members see something that we should be doing, we’ll look at that and do it. We’re trying to keep the fair safe for everybody there and make sure everybody can still have a good time. I want to thank everybody for coming out and supporting us. As a board we’re very happy with attendance and we thank them.”

demo derby
https://www.galioninquirer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/38/2020/07/web1_demo-derby.jpgdemo derby

lamb show
https://www.galioninquirer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/38/2020/07/web1_lamb-show.jpglamb show

tractor pull
https://www.galioninquirer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/38/2020/07/web1_tractor-pull.jpgtractor pull
Rides’ return, good weather, COVID-19 affect attendance

By Jodi Myers

Galion Inquirer

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