CLICK TO LISTEN TO JACK HALL’S INTERVIEW WITH STATE SEN. ED MCBROOM
After holding out hope to hold the “Best Fair Yet” in Escanaba in August, the Upper Peninsula State Fair pulled the plug on the event on Tuesday. The fair announcement cited the governor’s executive order that bans gatherings in excess of 250 people as the main reason.
The Fair had put together a detailed set of safety practices to be able to hold the event, albeit in a different way than in the past. The hope was that because the Fair is mostly held outdoors, and the Fairgrounds are so large, that the event could still be held August 17-23.
But Governor Gretchen Whitmer, in interviews with the Radio Results Network, and in a Town Hall televised across the U.P. earlier this month, stated that having large numbers of people was “not safe”.
“It’s pretty disappointing,” Fair Board member and U.P. State Senator Ed McBroom told RRN News Tuesday night. “We had approached the governor and asked for some modifications to the level of attendance for outdoor events that could take place, particularly that it was still a month and a half out. But there was a message back that that wasn’t going to happen.”
Whitmer also that the state would not be moving to Phase Six of the MiSafe Start plan until there’s a vaccine. The Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula are currently in Phase Five, which allows gatherings of up to 500 for sporting events and concerts, and up to 250 for other outdoors gatherings, such as weddings, funerals, and other parties. All of the rest of Michigan remains in Phase Four, and the governor, at a news conference on Tuesday, said that those parts of the state will not be moving to Phase Five on July 4th as had been hoped.
The U.P. State Fair Board says its decision, besides gathering size limits, was based on the fact that Skerbick Carnivals are not allowed to operate their rides under state rules, other than zip lines.
“When the Department of Licensing and Regulation told the carnivals that they weren’t allowed to operate mechanized rides, it just really ate at our viability,” McBroom said. “I mean, a fair has to be able to operate and be financially sound, and without the carnival, it becomes very difficult.”
The Fair does plan to host an livestock exhibit for all of the 4-H and other groups that have worked to raise their animals.
“The authority voted to tentatively approve doing a livetsock exhibition, same time, same place, and continue to provide that venue for our livestock vendors,” said McBroom, who is also a dairy farmer. “We believe that we can facilitate that and stay under the governor’s attendance thresholds, with as minimal amount of changes as possible.”
Details about that are still to come.
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