The Minnesota State Fair board will discuss Friday whether to cancel the hugely popular annual event for only the sixth time in its history, going back to before the Civil War.
Fair General Manager Jerry Hammer didn't return phone calls or e-mails Thursday. A fair spokeswoman confirmed that a video meeting would occur, but declined to say whether a decision would be made on holding the fair.
Stephanie Olson, owner of the Blue Moon Dine-in Theater, said vendors can adapt to unpredictable circumstances and she hopes the board doesn't make a decision it later regrets.
"We're Minnesotans," she said. "We deal with unknowns all the time. We go into every fair hoping we'll have 10 days of great weather, but you never know."
The signs from the State Capitol haven't been promising for fans of the State Fair, an annual 12-day tradition culminating on Labor Day that pulls in more than 2 million visitors. Enduring the heavy crowds has been a point of pride about going to the fair, long before anyone ever heard of social distancing.
Asked about the fair at her daily news conference Thursday, state Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said the state should be past the projected July peak of the COVID-19 outbreak by the time the fair is slated to start Aug. 27.
Unfortunately, Malcolm said, that won't be the end of the pandemic. The fair could stir up "a great deal of community spread and great risk of transmission," she said.
Gov. Tim Walz was similarly skeptical a month ago, saying that proceeding with the fair this year would be a "tough lift" and adding: "I don't know how you social distance in there."