GREENFIELD — The Hancock County 4-H Fair has a new date in July, but the schedule still may be impacted by state rules and progress on tamping down the spread of COVID-19.
The new schedule will delay the fair three weeks: It now tentatively will run July 10-17, organizers decided this week.
But hurdles remain.
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Plans for the event are contingent on whether Gov. Eric Holcomb will allow mass gatherings to take place during July; an executive order banning such events is currently in place. Purdue University, which sanctions 4-H fairs, also must sign off: In accordance with social distancing requirements, Purdue canceled all university-sponsored events for the month of June, which effectively postponed the fair. The university will announce on May 15 whether events during July can go ahead.
Brian Greer, director of Purdue Extension Hancock County, said fair organizers would also seek the blessing of the Hancock County Commissioners and the Hancock County Council.
“This is a way that we could basically just pick up our schedule as it was and move it to July,” Greer said about the fair, which had been scheduled June 19-26. “It’s the easiest way to have the most normal fair that we could possibly have.”
Greer, speaking during a videoconferencing meeting on the decision, said it wasn’t easily made.
“Some of you might be of the opinion that it’s overkill for Purdue to be that cautious,” Greer said, but he added it was the best decision that could be made in light of public health concerns. “Nobody really wanted to have to cancel face-to-face events, but that was the decision that was made, so that’s where we’re at right now.”
The new schedule attempts to preserve the vast majority of events, but Greer said several events have been deemed infeasible, including the fair parade, the talent show and the barbecue contests, because of the difficulty of maintaining social distancing. The carnival midway also is not part of the fair at this time.
Maintaining safe distancing promises to be tricky for all the remaining events, however. To address one aspect of that, the fair will utilize closed judging on projects, meaning that judges evaluating 4-H projects will not meet face to face with the participants to discuss their work. Poster projects, which make up a significant portion of non-livestock projects, will be judged online, Greer said in a letter sent Tuesday, April 21, to 4-H families. The letter said details on submissions and judging would be would provided soon.
“A lot of our judges are elderly, and they might be less likely to come out and mingle with the masses,” Greer said.
Ag association members also discussed the possibility of moving other events, particularly animal shows, to a later time in the year when more restrictions have been lifted. Some events could also be judged virtually, with an online gallery of entries created.
The Indiana State Fair is scheduled to be held in August. Purdue University does not sponsor the fair but would make the decision on whether to hold 4-H activities during the event.
Greer and Josh Phares, president of the Hancock County 4-H Agricultural Association, also clarified that in the event that it becomes necessary to cancel all or large portions of the county fair for the year, anyone who decided to hold their own livestock show would not receive the sponsorship of 4-H.
“I certainly understand if some people want to show at an open show and that’s their prerogative, but I just want to be very, very clear about that,” Greer said.
Phares said one “Plan C” possibility would be to rent fairgrounds facilities to third parties organizing open livestock shows if the fair is not able to be held.
But for now, organizers are hopeful enough COVID-19 progress will be made by mid-summer to carry on almost like normal. If not, they are prepared to adjust.
“We’ll take this one problem at a time,” Phares said.