BRENHOLT FOR CONGRESS CAMPAIGN issued the following announcement on June 11.
While the Northwest Montana Fair is still scheduled to take place, it will look a little different this year due to concerns over COVID-19.
“We want to make it as normal as possible,” said Mark Campbell, manager of the Flathead County Fairgrounds. However, the fair will establish numerous safety protocols necessary to mitigate coronavirus-related risks.
The fair will take place Aug. 19-23 and is still scheduled to feature its usual attractions, including arena entertainment, animal barns, commercial displays and carnival attractions. Nearly 80,000 people attended the fair last year, a 1.6% increase from the year before.
To manage all the new safety measures, Campbell said the fair will be “staffing up dramatically” so there are more people to clean up areas where people gather and queue in lines.
“Everybody this year is on barn duty,” he said.
Last year the fair hired 180 associates from a staffing agency. This year, Campbell expects that number to be in the 215 to 220 range. There will be twice as many assigned to clean up restrooms on a regular basis.
Campbell said he is actively “taking ideas we’re seeing throughout the community” and trying to apply them.
For instance, in the food and concession area, vendors will be asked to encourage dining where there will not be congestion, guests will bus their own tables and tables will be wiped down and sanitized hourly. Fair staff will also try to direct lines in different ways to allow space between guests.
The capacity of the grandstand for events such as the Chris Janson concert will be reduced by 25%. Reserved seats will be blocked off into family units with two empty seats between groups to maintain social distancing, and the number of general admission tickets has been reduced, though people in general admission will be asked to “self-distance.”
The ticket reduction will bring the fair slightly above the break-even point, Campbell said. But, he added, it is “not about the economic side,” and putting on the grandstand events is “better than not doing it at all.”
In the commercial booths underneath the grandstands, Campbell said they will “create flows” to make sure people are not brushing past each other. There will also be what he called a “Senior 60” – a 60-minute period for seniors and other at-risk individuals to visit the booths before the crowds.
Campbell said one of the biggest challenges will be managing the animal barns, as he said the number of animals is expected to be up compared to previous years.
He said the fair will be “trying to reduce all the grouping we can” in the animal barns. The traditional breakfasts and lunches for animal buyers will be scaled down, and aisles in the barns will be widened where possible.
Distancing will be encouraged at the entrance gates, and Campbell said the fair will establish a “peak capacity” once they are on the verge of having “more people there than we could handle.”
To combat this, Campbell strongly encouraged more guests to show up earlier to the fair. He said the earliest parts of the day are “very light” compared to the 8 to 9 p.m. period, which is very crowded during a typical fair.
He said if more people attended earlier it “would really help us manage the load in the evening hours.”
Given the uncertainties going into this year’s fair, Campbell said he does not know what attendance will be like in 2020. “We might be 25 to 30% down or 25 to 30% up,” he said.
Meanwhile, Campbell said he expects the carnival area to be smaller than normal due to the financial situation of North Star Amusements, the company that hosts the carnival attractions. The pandemic has had a “dramatic effect on them,” Campbell said, with more of their events canceled than are set to go on.
“We’re going to be the biggest event that remains on their schedule,” he added.
The rides will either be wiped down between rotations, or guests will alternate between cars. While this will cut the ride capacity dramatically, it is the safest way to still have the rides at the fair.
But with the start of the fair still more than two months away, much could still change. Campbell said he is planning under the parameters of Phase Two of Gov. Steve Bullock’s reopening plan, though if the governor moves to Phase Three “that’ll make it easier” to plan safety measures.
On the other hand, if Montana or Flathead County see a significant uptick in COVID-19 cases, that will present the fair with a much different situation.
“There will be some things that surprise us,” Campbell said. “It’s our responsibility to react” appropriately.
Campbell said the fair is vitally important to many different groups across Northwest Montana, from numerous nonprofits to kids participating in 4-H.
“It’s better to produce the fair and do it safely than not do it at all,” Campbell said.
Original source here.
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