Storm clouds loom over the Allen County Fair on Sunday afternoon.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
LIMA — The Allen County Fair got off to a wet and windy start this past weekend, forcing the cancellation of Sunday’s grandstand event.
Severe storms rocked the fairgrounds Saturday with winds reaching as high as 81 mph, with rain and hail pouring down on fairgoers. According to fair manager Troy Elwer, while the weather did not prevent Saturday’s concert with Chris Young and BRELAND from taking place, it did take a toll on the grounds.
“Thankfully, it didn’t damage any of the concert equipment,” he said. “But when all that rain came in, it made our VIP section and party pit an absolute mud pit. And it also did quite some damage on the track because of all the people and traffic that had been on it.”
Because of that damage, the decision was made Sunday to cancel the baton and flag corps competition and the Kewpee Showcase of Bands. While Elwer acknowledged that the band showcase is typically one of the more popular events at the fair, giving area bands a chance to show off their hard work, safety considerations had to take precedence.
“Safety is our number one priority,” he said. “After our concert and cleaning up the chairs off the track with all the people traffic and the amount of rain that we got, we actually deemed the track unsafe for the bands to actually perform.”
Canceling an event is especially difficult at a county fair, since there is no chance to reschedule.
“I mean, honestly, it’s kind of a logistical nightmare at times,” Elwer said. “A lot of our events are youth-oriented, so keeping our kids safe [is the main concern]. But the main thing is, we’re on a time constraint at the fair because we only have nine days. It’s not like we can extend our fair. So more often than not, when we have big events in our grandstands, if we do cancel them there, there’s really no rescheduling process because we just roll into the next day and the next event’s already set to come in.”
On a positive note, Elwer is hopeful that weather will not be an issue for the rest of the fair.
“It’s sounding like the forecast they’re predicting is going to be very promising,” he said. “We’re going to probably have some warm days, but it looks like our mornings and evenings are going to be pretty cool, which is what our people and animals tend to like around here.”
Reach Craig Kelly at 567-242-0391 or on Twitter @cmkelly419.
