Agricultural News
Oklahoma State Fair's Scott Munz Said It was The Hard, But Correct Decision to Cancel the 2020 State Fair
Mon, 29 Jun 2020 13:03:47 CDT
For the First time in 114 years, the Oklahoma State Fair has been canceled due to COVID 19 concerns. Associate Farm Director KC Sheperd spoke with State Fair Spokesman Scott Munz, who said it was a sad announcement, but one that had to happen, "It was something we agonized over for a couple of months now, and unfortunately the facts supported cancelation. The emotion made it difficult, but it really wasn't practical to think we could do a fair with social distancing. We don't want to be the ones spreading the virus, so we felt canceling the event was the best thing to mitigate the spread of the virus."
Munz said they spoke to several resources and connections, along with being in constant communication with all of the fair partners to try to come up with the best solution. He said he knows some fairs are still going on with abbreviated plans. Still, he thought it would be tough to enforce some of those restrictions that had to be put in place since they have always tried to make the fair bigger and better from year to year, "We really have tried to increase the attendance over the past years, and enhance our brand, So we felt like if we were to do a fair just for the sake of doing it, we would be letting down some of our people because they would say, well where's Disney? Where're the extreme bulls?"
Munz went onto say that social distancing at the fair proves almost impossible, and the sanitation efforts would also be complicated, "How do you sanitize the rides after every cycle? How do you social distance on the cinnamon role line?"
The OKC Staff works very hard year-round for ways to put on the biggest and best state fair, but Munz said this year with Covid-19 that just wasn't practical. He said he looks forward to next year's fair and hopefully a bigger and brighter 2020. "Its a very difficult time, but we are up for the task, we are trained professionals, we have hundreds of years of experience on the senior staff, and we'll figure it out. We just figured the 2020 fair was just something we couldn't chance doing for a multitude of reasons."
Click or tape the listen bar below to hear the complete conversation with Scott Munz
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