BELCHERTOWN – For only the third time in its 163-year history, the Belchertown Fair has been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The fair was scheduled for Sept. 25-27 and has been held annually for more than a century. The last two times it has been canceled was in 1916 during the polio epidemic and in 1918 during World War I and the influenza pandemic.
Town resident Scott Brown, who serves on the fair committee, said holding the Belchertown Fair in 2021 would likely depend on whether there is a vaccine for COVID-19. If it’s possible to organize the fair next year, funding would not be an issue because the money saved this year would be available in 2021, he said.
“We’re a nonprofit organization, so whatever money we make from the year before is what we have for the year that we’re coming into,” Brown said.
He said the committee will start planning next year’s fair in November.
“We don’t want to be signing up to have our entertainment coming and get too close before we cancel,” he said.
For many of the 80 to 85 vendors at the fair such as a local Knights of Columbus and student groups at Belchertown High School, they will miss out on the funds that they would have normally raised during the fair.
“It affects us in the long run because of how much time and planning we put into it, but we’re not really at the stage of where we’re planning too much yet,” Brown said. “But it’s just harder for the school kids who would put that money towards their senior trip.”
Every year, the fair operates with the help of more than 300 volunteers during the three day span, he said. Beside dozens of vendors, there’s also an annual parade, performances by dance troupes and a midway full of rides and games.
Brown, 37, has been a volunteer committee member since he was a junior in high school. His aunt and uncle, Cindy Brown and Kevin Brown, have been part of the committee for more than three decades.
“I’ve been going at it for 22 or 23 years,” he said, adding that most of the fair committee members have been on the committee for years, if not decades.
Cindy Brown, 69, who is a committee member responsible for the fair’s vendors, said she thinks local area residents will be looking forward to returning to the Belchertown Fair in 2021.
“People look forward to this all year long,” she said. “They’re disappointed that it’s been canceled. It’s kind of like a homecoming for many people who lived and grew up in Belchertown. And the only thing that would stop us is if this whole virus situation isn’t under control. We’re going to hope that there’s a vaccine or a treatment and go forward.”
For more information about the Belchertown Fair visit www.belchertownfair.com.
Chris Goudreau can be reached at cgoudreau@gazettenet.com.