The State Fair of Texas, which has been canceled only eight times during its 134 years, and even then primarily because of two world wars, will not take place during 2020, fair officials announced Tuesday.
The reason, of course, is a global pandemic that continues to spread like wildfire throughout the United States, with cases in Texas rising.
“In the current climate of COVID-19, there is no feasible way for the Fair to put proper precautions in place while maintaining the Fair environment you know and love,” Gina Norris, board chair for the State Fair of Texas, said in a statement. “While we cannot predict what the COVID-19 pandemic will look like in September, the recent surge in positive cases is troubling for all of North Texas. The safest and most responsible decision we could make for all involved at this point in our 134-year history is to take a hiatus for the 2020 season.”
Texas has suffered more than 210,000 confirmed cases, and across the state, more than 2,700 people have died from COVID-19. In the U.S. as a whole, there have been more than 3 million confirmed cases and more than 133,000 deaths.
“I love the State Fair of Texas,” Mayor Eric Johnson said in a statement, “and I am saddened that I will not be able to take my family this year. But the State Fair made the safe and responsible decision. COVID-19′s spread is rampant in our community, and public health must come first. We all have to do what it takes to slow this virus so we can save lives and livelihoods and get back to doing what we enjoy.”
The fair was canceled in 1918, near the end of World War I, to make way for a military encampment; from 1935 through 1937, when the Texas Centennial Exposition and the Pan American Exposition took over; and from 1942 through 1945, during World War II, when the fairgrounds morphed into a housing unit for American armed forces.
For Dallas, the loss of the fair carries with it a devastating economic impact. Based on a 2017 study conducted by the University of North Texas, the fair delivers an annual economic impact of $410 million to $499 million, making it one of the premier events in the nation. By comparison, the Super Bowl has in recent years delivered to the host city an economic impact of about $400 million.
Last year alone, the fair drew 2,514,637 people during its nearly monthlong run, and it’s not uncommon on peak days for the fair to draw more than 200,000 people.
Food is a vital component of any State Fair of Texas, ranging from Belgian waffles to cotton-candy tacos. The fair’s most popular food is, arguably, Fletcher’s corny dogs. Even the folks at Fletcher’s issued a statement Tuesday, lamenting the loss of the fair.
“For 78 years, the Fletcher’s family has served their original corny dogs to attendees of the State Fair of Texas. While they are heartbroken that the State Fair of Texas will not take place this year, they take the health of their employees and customers seriously and understand the decision that was made to protect the public at large from COVID-19.”
Still left in limbo is the fate of the 2020 Red River Showdown between the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma, a marquee game that routinely draws more than 90,000 people to the Cotton Bowl, as well as a national television audience.
“If football moves forward, the games will be played in the Cotton Bowl as scheduled, despite the cancellation of the 2020 Fair,” said State Fair spokeswoman Karissa Condoianis, who noted that the fate of the game is “not our decision.” Whether it happens or not, she added, will be decided by the “NCAA, [athletic] conferences, schools, government” and other stakeholders. The same situation also applies to the State Fair Classic, played each year in the Cotton Bowl — during the fair — between Grambling State University and Prairie View A&M.
The loss of the fair now rivals Austin’s glaring civic casualty, when the coronavirus forced the 2020 cancellation of the internationally popular South by Southwest. A 2019 report commissioned by SXSW placed its annual economic impact at $356 million. Officials for South by Southwest recently acknowledged that, while their event was insured, their policy omitted coverage for a global pandemic.
Comic-Con, one of the country’s biggest draws, held annually in San Diego, notches economic-impact figures of almost $500 million. But Comic-Con is also among the many events across the country that is choosing to forego 2020.
There is also this element: the Dallas mayor said in May that potential cancellation of the State Fair of Texas would tax the city with an even bigger financial challenge, coming as it does after $2 billion in estimated insured losses in the wake of nine tornadoes that swept across North Texas in 2019. The tornadoes had already inflicted sizable financial losses in form of “lost sales tax revenue, hotel occupancy tax revenue, etc.”
The 2020 edition of the fair had been scheduled to run from Sept. 25 through Oct. 18. In its statement, the fair said it “will automatically issue refunds for those who have already purchased tickets and season passes. No further action is required on your behalf.” For additional details regarding refunds, you can visit bigtex.com or email tickets@bigtex.com.
Mitchell Glieber, president of the State Fair of Texas, said in May that the fair is insured, but like South by Southwest, its policy does not cover a pandemic. The fair has about $13 million in what he called a “reserve fund,” as per its contract with the City of Dallas.
Those funds remain in place. He isn’t sure at the moment, however, whether the fair will be forced to use even a portion of the $13 million. From a financial standpoint, the fair benefits, he said, from a run of successful years that will help it weather the storm.
And yet, it didn’t make cancellation easier.
“As you can imagine, it was a very difficult decision. Our team worked really, really hard to put together a plan that we thought we could have executed with reduced attendance.”
The board began discussing the issue in April, but as July rolled around and the health situation worsened dramatically, “It became very obvious to us that it wasn’t in the cards,” Glieber said.
Adding to the difficulty was “the number of people impacted by a decision like this, whether it be the fairgoers coming to the fair or the vendors that participate at the fair or the thousands of employees that work the fair. They’re all impacted, and that’s the heartbreaking side of the story. We believe we did the right thing,” Glieber said, “knowing we could not risk becoming a major contributing factor to the struggle that Texas and Dallas County are experiencing.”
He said the fair had 2,300 employees on its own payroll in 2019. And there were as many as 7,000 others who worked as vendors, concessionaires, ride and game operators and exhibitors.
Is there any way for those people to be compensated for the loss of work?
“We don’t really have a mechanism to be able to address that,” Glieber said, noting that such people work on a seasonal basis only, and so far, none had been hired for 2020.
“This pandemic has been so debilitating for so any people, so many businesses,” he said.
Texas is hardly alone in canceling fairs. Those already canceled for 2020 include major state fairs in Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana and even more throughout the Midwest.
The final ray of hope is that the Texas-OU game might still be played and in the Cotton Bowl, where, Glieber said, it has taken place every year since 1929 — even during World War II, when the fair itself was closed.
“We just had discussions with the athletic directors at both schools, and both of them said, ‘Look, if there’s college football, we’re going to be playing this game, and we’re playing it at the Cotton Bowl.’”
Lingering questions remain, of course, “about how many fans they might be able to have. They’ll have to work that out themselves.”
So, really, the only question left is: What about 2021? Will there be a State Fair of Texas in 2021?
“Nobody has a crystal ball on this thing,” Glieber said. “I know as much as what I study and read about, and all indications are that there will be a vaccine in place. We completely expect to have the 2021 State Fair running as scheduled. We will absolutely make it a special year. We intend to come back bigger, stronger, better than we ever were before.”
Sarah Blaskovich contributed to this report.
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