With the COVID-19 pandemic raging and the omicron variant causing problems, Russell Redding, Pennsylvania secretary of agriculture, says the 2022 Farm Show, which was virtual last year, is still a go and will be held Jan. 8-15 at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex and Expo Center in Harrisburg.

But with the prospect of thousands of people crowding into a facility that’s notorious for its crowded conditions and, at times, bad ventilation, Redding says people need to be smart before making the trip this year.

“We’re going to be pretty clear that if they feel uncomfortable or they are vulnerable themselves, or they have family in the households or folks who are vulnerable, this is not the place or the year to come to the farm show,” he says. “We have never tried to discourage, but we’re going to try this year to be very clear that be aware, as we’ve learned the last 21 months, be flexible but also to be smart about this.

“We’ve never gone to that length to impress upon the public that you really need to think hard before you step into that complex. Not that we’re feeling that our planning is inadequate. I think it’s just the environment and the issues that we’ve confronted the last year and a half about public safety and health. We just to continue to message that.”

The farm show complex has undergone several changes since the last in-person show was held in 2020, including a new $20 million air ventilation and handling system, new floors and enhanced electrical systems.

All visitors will be offered masks and hand sanitizer when entering the building, and while masks are optional on the buses transporting visitors to and from the building’s satellite parking lots to the front door, Redding strongly recommends masks be worn.

Flu and COVID-19 vaccine clinics, sponsored by the state Department of Health, will also be held each day.

Redding talked in depth about these changes, as well as other ways organizers are planning to keep exhibitors and visitors safe throughout the show:

Has the emergence of this new omicron variant changed any plans in regard to the show? I would say the new variant has done a couple of things. One, it has sharpened our focus on the messaging around what we’re doing to protect public health and safety. Meaning, being more up front about following CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines; making sure that we got masks and hand sanitizer stations available for staff, public, exhibitors, etc.; and most important, I think, elevating what we’ve done in anticipation of, even pre-omicron, the investments that we made in things like the air-handling system, which doesn’t sound significant until you think that this is airborne and all the air-quality issues we’ve heard about the last year and a half.

Are you having any issues regarding staffing for this year’s show? We have been in the recruiting phase for some time. We are challenged on security. We are challenged on the maintenance and labor staff. From the employee side, we’re OK. I mean, I think given what we did to keep the complex open and working and managing the PPE, overall 2021 was important because it … kept those staff engaged and employed, so we have a base. Our challenge is finding enough laborers and enough security. But we’re making progress every day on that.

Can you talk a little more about the upgrades to the building’s ventilation system? We had planned a capital project that was to commence right after the 2020 Farm Show. That was a little over $20 million. Obviously, that was interrupted temporarily, but one of the planned … jobs was the air-handling systems, specifically. So it is not just in one part of the complex; it is noticeable throughout. So in the large arena, the equine arena, the sale arena, the expo hall, the main floor, all have been improved.

I personally experienced the air quality, and it was noticeable by exhibitors (at the Keystone International Livestock Expo and All American Dairy Show) by how much improved the air quality was. And they felt not only a personal benefit, but the animal benefit to that. I think that is a critical piece of this confidence of coming into the farm show complex.

Have any changes been made to booth layouts and aisle configuration? The aisles have been widened, and we have made improvements to the direction of aisles. So if you’re familiar with the old main hall coming in off Maclay Street, there had been one aisle that ran east-west. We’ve carried that same model across the rest of that main hall, because you always have these pinch points about halfway down. And we tried to change that so you can walk all the way from one end to the other end and not have to be dispersed midway.

In hindsight, could more have been done in terms of planning for the 2022 show? A year on, we’ve got a vaccine, we’ve got boosters, we’ve got a high percentage of Pennsylvanians that have been vaccinated. So we feel that the time is different. Yeah, COVID is still out there. We do have tools that people need to avail themselves of.

But in that planning, part of it was, do we do just a livestock show and competitive events and just call it a day? Do we forfeit food? Do we limit the number of days and hours? What is our ability to do ticketing of the individuals coming in to limit access? The reality is in a place with a thousand doors, it is very difficult to have a ticketing system. So we dropped that and felt like let’s manage the things that we can manage. The air quality, we can make masks available, we can do this significant messaging, we can widen the aisles, and we can be sort of clearer in the messaging, but also in the accommodations to make sure, like in the main food court, opening it up so we can get rid of these pinch points where people will congregate. I think we continue to modify and improve our own planning.

Show updates can be accessed at farmshow.pa.gov.