XENIA — The 2021 Greene County Fair will feel a lot more normal. After operating as a junior fair only in 2020 with no games, rides, public grandstand events, and limited food vendors, attendees can anticipate a fair they are accustomed to seeing.
The fair is scheduled to run Aug. 2-7 and will contain rides, games, and other grandstand events.
Although the fair does not officially open until Monday, Aug. 2, animals are weighed-in Saturday, July 31 and the activities begin on Sunday, Aug. 1.
“On the first, we will be open. It will be free to get in,” Greene County Fair Senior Fair Board Director Kala Benton said. “There will be no rides. The calf scramble will take place.”
Due to traveling from another fair, Benton said rides will come in late Saturday night and are expected to open at 4 p.m. Aug. 2.
“On Monday at 9 a.m., a state examiner comes in to inspect rides and games,” Benton said. “The games cannot be a game of chance. They have to be a game of skill.”
Safety precautions will be in place.
“We will follow all state and local health guidelines,” Benton said. “We will not be mandating masks. We will be encouraging social distancing.”
Hand sanitizing stations will be located throughout the fairgrounds. Benton said that bleachers will return to all of the barns.
“We are trying to get back to where we were in 2019,” Benton said. “The biggest change is the inclusion of the hand sanitizing stations. We will be encouraging people to wash hands more often.”
Benton said the fair is the agricultural society’s biggest event it puts on each year. With only a junior fair last year, the agricultural society took a financial hit.
“We are an expo center,” Benton said. “The lack of a fair hurt our expo as well. The ag society owns the fairgrounds and its buildings. We applied for different financial programs to possibly receive assistance.”
In order to save money, Benton said board members cut grass, removed snow, planted flowers, cleaned bathrooms, etc.
Greene County Fairgrounds is located at 120 Fairground Road in Xenia. For more information and a complete schedule of events, visit www.greenecountyfairgrounds.com. The Greene County Fair can be followed on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.