Butler County Fair was ‘pretty much back to normal’: President discusses the 171st event

Specific attendance numbers for last week’s 171st Butler County Fair, which is run by the Butler County Agricultural Society, won’t be available until at least next week, but Turner said he felt people were being cautious ― the 110 hand sanitizers around the fairgrounds were frequently used and refilled ― though it reminded him of the pre-pandemic 2019 fair. He said, however, he personally saw just a handful of people wearing facial coverings at the fair.

“I did not really see much of a change from where we were in 2019,” he said. “Our numbers were up and I think that had a lot to do with people are ready to go back to normal, get out of the house and do things that they want to do.”

One of the marquee fair events, the Friday night demolition derby, saw people “packed in tight” in the grandstand, Turner said.

Last year’s fair was a virtual ghost town compared to this year’s fair. Organizers did not allow the general public to attend the 2020 fair as Ohio’s health department prohibited last summer large social gatherings in hopes to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Though attendance was seemingly back to normal, Turner said they did see a downturn in animal entries.

“I think a lot of people were afraid they were going to get stuck with an animal if restrictions came and we weren’t able to have our sale,” Turner said.

But having the fair opened for the general public was very important for the Butler County Agricultural Society, Turner said.

“I just want to thank everybody for coming out to support us because we desperately needed it,” he said. “After sitting idle for a year, financially, it hurts.”