Butler County Fair canceled for 2020 because of coronavirus concerns

The 2020 Butler County Fair has been canceled.

The Butler County Fair Board made the announcement on social media Tuesday night, saying it was doing so “with great reluctance” and that committees are being created to explore options so that Junior Fair-aged exhibitors may show their projects in “a modified manner.”

“Details of those plans will be shared in the weeks to come, as they are laid out,” the fair board wrote in the post. “Decisions will be made based on considering the public safety, in coordination with the Butler County Health Department, while maintaining fiscal responsibility.”

FIRST REPORT: Butler County Fair: If it can’t happen, ‘we’re going to be, financially, a little strapped’

The fair was first held in 1851. Planning for this year’s event, which was set to run July 26 to Aug. 1, were the Butler County Agricultural Society Board of Directors, its support staff and the Butler County office of the Ohio State University Extension.

The next Senior Fair Board Meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on June 9.

The 2020 Ohio State Fair, which originally was slated to run from July 29 to August 9 in Columbus, was canceled last week due to concerns about spreading the coronavirus. The very first planned state fair was canceled in September 1849 due to an outbreak of Asiatic cholera.

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