CLALLAM COUNTY – The 2020 Clallam County Fair was officially cancelled Friday.

The Parks, Fair & Facilities Department announced the news this afternoon that the Fair, scheduled for August 20-23, saying “…there were far too many unknowns remaining in order for us to dedicate the time and necessary resources to produce the..Fair”, adding that the Fair would only be possible if Clallam County were in Phase IV of the Governor’s “Safe Start” plan and that does not appear to be possible.

We spoke with local 4-H Program Coordinator Melanie Greer just after the news broke today.

“It’s so sad that these 4-H’ers an FFA’ers and everyone who comes to the fair to showcase their work, they put an entire year or worth of work into those projects, and it’s unfortunate that they are not going to get the opportunity to display all of their hard work that they put in over the year. I just hope they know that they are appreciated and it is heartbreaking.”

Greer says the State Fair is still being planned in the event that it can happen in some form in September, so the 4-H and FFA folks can continue to do what they have to in order to qualify for that.

“I just got off a zoom call. I’m a member of a Statewide WSU committee that is just solely focused on finding ways for kids to virtually showcase their work and still get to qualify for the State Fair “.

In the meantime, she says plans are underway for a Virtual Livestock Sale sometime this summer.

“Both 4-H and the fairgrounds have partnered with the Pacific Northwest Junior Livestock Auction and they have been working very hard on finding ways and putting together a virtual sale. They can still sell those animals that kids have been raising to auction at the fair. And so if anybody wants to support our 4-H Youth who raise livestock to sell at the fair you can find that at PNWJLA.com.”