May 6, 2021
What difference will a year make?
If someone two years ago would have told you that many summer events in 2020 were going to be canceled, or only held virtually, you would have looked at that person as if they were not right in the head.
You would have given the person an eyebrow-raised, cockeyed stare if they would have told you that the reason for those cancellations was a global pandemic. “Stop such crazy talk,” you would have said. Sadly, we all know that such crazy talk was real.
One year later, we have a lot of things heading in the right direction to reach a semblance of normalcy. With the rollout of multiple COVID-19 vaccines and herd immunity, we have seen the gradual loosening of guidelines, and commerce is scaling up again.
With the gradual reopening of commerce, we are also seeing and hearing organizers of summer events going full speed ahead to get back what was missing from the summer of 2020.
Here at Farm Progress, we are gearing up for two big events that, like so many others in 2020, were canceled or altered in appearance: the Farm Progress Show, Aug. 31 to Sept. 2, at Decatur, Ill., and Husker Harvest Days, Sept. 14-16, at Grand Island, Neb. These are great shows, and we look forward to seeing large crowds return in person for the crop, livestock and equipment demos.
But county fairs and community events are equally important to the fabric of rural America. Last year many county fairs and town celebrations were canceled or held in scaled-down versions of their former selves. Small rural communities look forward to these celebrations, which also aid their local economies.