Sep 2, 2020 3 min read

“The Pennsylvania Farm Show, usually a crowded affair celebrating food, farming and family, will be a virtual event this January to mitigate the spread of COVID-19,” LNP LancasterOnline’s Jeff Hawkes wrote following the official announcement by state Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding. “There will be no in-person events or competitions at January’s show, which typically attracts as many as 400,000 visitors to the Harrisburg complex during the weeklong run and generates about $90 million in economic activity,” Hawkes noted.

2020 has been filled with necessary but demoralizing cancellations and online reimaginings of so many things we enjoy.

And now, with the news that the next Pennsylvania Farm Show will be “celebrated virtually,” it is sad to learn that the effects of the pandemic on the economy – and on our social lives – will extend into early 2021.

We are social beings. We love fairs, carnivals and festivals. We love sports, concerts, movies and theater. We love being together and celebrating our shared interests.

And that makes this all so very hard. Especially for those whose economic livelihoods depend on huge annual events such as the Farm Show. And for the many who work year-round to prepare for them.

The Elizabethtown Fair was supposed to kick off the start of Lancaster County’s fair season last week, LNP LancasterOnline’s Erin Negley noted. But health experts’ continuing concerns about the ability of the novel coronavirus to spread in crowds – along with the state’s prohibition on outdoor events of more than 250 people – has led to the cancellation of beloved late-summer festivals.

“Not having a fair is a first for many communities, some of which organized fairs more than a century ago,” Negley wrote. “This year, we won’t have the homecoming.”

And it’s not just here. Across the river, the York State Fair, which usually draws more than a half-million people, was canceled for the first time since 1918 – also a pandemic year. Cancellation was the right thing to do for the health and safety of the community a century ago, and it’s the right thing in 2020.

Most fairs have their roots in celebrating agriculture and the summer-end harvest. We’ll miss livestock competitions, the food, the rides, the music, the laughter and smiles on the faces of children and neighbors.

All is not lost for this summer, though. Negley notes that some smaller community events are being held. The plans for them are necessarily modest, with a mixture of food trucks, street performers, livestock auctions and games. If you attend, please follow public health guidelines, wear a mask and practice social distancing.