Chautauqua County Fair Is Cancelled For 2020

There's more sad news today as we find out that the Chautauqua County Fair will be cancelled this summer.

WIVB is reporting that fair officials made the call "“due to the evolving COVID-19 situation, its impact on community health and well-being.”

The official announcement:

"The safety of the Chautauqua County Fair’s visitors, participants and community is the highest priority in producing the annual fair.  After careful consideration, it became clear that cancellation was the prudent choice for the fair to do its part to improve community health and safety, and reduce the cycle of infection. Provided the COVID-19 situation improves to the point where it is safe to hold mass gathering, the Chautauqua County Fair will return July 19-25, 2021.”

The Chautauqua County Fair has been going strong since 1881.  There is only one other stretch of time where they've had to cancel the fair.  That was during World War II.  During that time the fairgrounds were used for a prisoner of war camp for the Germans, Japanese and Italians.

The sad part about losing fairs like these aside from the entertainment that it brings us as fair-goers is the loss for small businesses, vendors, and farmers who lose out on revenue.  So many kids work so hard all year to show animals at the fair.  When these opportunities go away, they are the ones who lose the most.

The fair hopes to be back up and running again next summer if all goes well.  The planned dates for the Chautauqua County Fair next year will be July 19-25.