ANOKA COUNTY FAIR CANCELLED AMID COVID-19 CONCERNS

(ANOKA) – The Anoka County Fairgrounds aren’t necessarily quiet the weeks of the year when the fair is going on.

“We have a beautiful church (on the property) now, and we have outbuildings,” said Anoka County Fair President Mike Ahlers. “Graduations, weddings, receptions, car shows, antique shows…We don’t know when we’ll be able to start all of that up again.”

COVID-19 has those events on hold, and now it’s also cause the cancellation of this year’s Anoka County Fair.

Ahlers said that decision was “very difficult.”

“Unprecedented,” he said. “We’ve never been in this position, and, being a bunch of volunteers, this is way out of anything we imagined we’d have to do.”
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[/su_row] Ahlers said the fair is a non-profit that uses gate receipts to pay off certain expenses, and, ultimately, it could have afforded to not have the fair and still pay some of its bills. But he said to put into motion all that’s needed to have the fair and then have no one show up because of the pandemic would be catastrophic financially.

“It’s too much of a gamble,” he said. “So, as our responsibility to the people who started this over 100 years ago, we don’t want to ruin something forever that we might be able to put off for one year.”

He also is sad that hundreds of county 4-H students won’t get to experience the fair, either.

“These kids work all year long for their projects,” like crafts, livestock, or artwork. “These kids…come here to the county fair to wanting to get a ribbon.”

Ahlers has been with the fair organization for more than 20 years and didn’t know off-hand how often it may have been cancelled in the past.

“It was not an easy decision, and it’s not a political decision by no means at all.”