The Iowa State Fair will not be held in 2020 due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. The Iowa State Fair board, the governing body that oversees the event, voted June 10. The decision was made to protect the health and safety of all fairgoers. Iowa’s next state fair will be held Aug. 12-22, 2021.

State fair manager Gary Slater says he is just as sad as everyone else. After studying possible options, while carefully reviewing current health guidelines and examining operational limitations, it became clear that holding the 2020 Iowa State Fair, which attracts about 1 million people to the fairgrounds in Des Moines over 11 days, would not be responsible.

“The top priority of the Iowa State Fair has and always will be to protect the health and safety of fairgoers,” said Slater, making the announcement at a press conference. “While the decision of the board will certainly come as a disappointment to many, the board determined that holding a fair in accordance with the current health guidelines related to COVID-19 wasn’t feasible. We appreciate the support of people over the past few months as we reviewed various options. We look forward to welcoming everyone back to the state fair in 2021.”

Factors in decision

The Iowa State Fair had been scheduled for Aug. 13-23. The board delayed making a decision as long as possible but believed deciding by mid-June was necessary in order to give concessionaires, vendors and fairgoers ample notice. The fair staff would have also needed time to get the grounds and event schedule prepared for a possible Aug. 13 opening.

As for the 4-H and FFA shows and contests, Slater says fair officials are considering possibly still doing some of the 4-H and FFA shows, using the same animals and spreading it out over a longer period of time at an event at the fairgrounds this summer. But he says that is not a done deal just yet.

The Iowa State Fair is one of the last big Midwest fairs to decide whether to open for 2020. State fairs in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Indiana chose to cancel because of COVID-19 within the past two weeks, joining previously scrapped fairs in Ohio and North Dakota. Nebraska, South Dakota, Kansas and Michigan have said their state fairs will continue forward, in spite of safety risks. Fair leadership in Illinois and Missouri are still weighing options.

Rare cancellation

The Iowa State Fair has been canceled only five times in its 165-year history, and never for a pandemic or large-scale medical crisis. There was no fair in 1898 because of that year's competing World’s Fair in Omaha, Neb., and World War II dimmed the Iowa grandstand’s lights from 1942 to 1945. Fair events were held during the Spanish flu pandemic that began in 1918, as well as during the polio epidemic. 

“If we would have gone forward and held this year’s Iowa State Fair, given the parameters we would have had to deal with, it would be a shadow of the fair people have enjoyed in the past,” Slater says. He says social distancing just wasn’t possible with so many exhibitors and people attending.

“Obviously, we’re disappointed the fair has been canceled,” says Drew Mogler, spokesman for the Iowa Pork Producers Association. IPPA has served 60,000 pork chops on a stick every year at the state fair. It’s a treat so iconic that every presidential candidate wants a bite. Politicians running for office always make a stop at the pork tent, eat a pork chop and take turns helping pork producers grill the meat. IPPA already had a contingency plan in place for this year’s state fair, including grab-and-go food.

“We had been thinking about the state fair and putting plans in place if it were to be held,” Mogler says.

Looking forward to next year

The Iowa State Fair promises that all of the vendors and campers will get their same spot at the 2021 fair. “Those things are coveted by those folks,” Slater says. “We want people to know the fair will be the same next year that it would have been this year.”

In the end, the state fair board said its decision to postpone this year’s fair was about health and safety, and also a financial decision. “Not having a fair and having a socially distanced fair would lose about the same amount of money,” Slater says.

Fairgoers will have to wait until next year for what Slater promises will be the best Iowa State Fair ever. “We’re looking forward to it and making plans already,” he adds. “You can visit iowastatefair.org for more information on tickets, events and other questions.”

Not having the Iowa State Fair this year means the Des Moines area economy will lose tens of millions of dollars. Greg Edwards, CEO of Catch Des Moines, the area’s Chamber of Commerce organization, estimates the loss could be as much as $110 million. People come from far and wide, and the impact is felt far beyond the state fairgrounds. Hotels, restaurants, malls and other area attractions will all lose money.

“The fair board had a really tough decision to make,” Edwards says. “While we respect their decision totally, this is a huge loss for Iowa as people come from all over the country and the world to attend the Iowa State Fair.”

An Iowa tradition

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said during his weekly press conference that he would not question the judgment of public health officials and the state fair board, but that he “sure would miss the Iowa State Fair this year.”

“My wife has been telling me in recent weeks she wants to go to the Iowa State Fair this year,” he said. “We haven't missed the state fair since 1974. And before 1974, we periodically went to the state fair. It's not just the Grassleys that love it.”

Asked if he would wear a mask to enter the fairgrounds, Grassley said yes, adding that “attending the Iowa State Fair is an Iowa tradition.”