O.C. Fair Board will meet to consider canceling this year’s fair because of coronavirus

The board of the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa will hold a special meeting April 27 to discuss whether to cancel the 2020 Orange County Fair because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The meeting, to be held at 9 a.m., will be accessible online via livestream. Teleconferencing details will be posted online next week, according to the meeting agenda.

If the Fair Board decides to cancel the event, currently scheduled for July 17 through Aug. 16, it would follow in the footsteps of the Del Mar fair board, which voted unanimously Tuesday to cancel this year’s San Diego County Fair, which was to have begun June 5, to prevent mass gatherings and spread of the coronavirus.

The OC Fair & Event Center already has had to adapt to the changing times. Last week, the first of 10 trailers arrived at the fairgrounds as possible back-up shelters for senior citizens and chronically ill homeless people. The fairgrounds also has been floated as a possible location for a medical facility should hospitals become swamped with coronavirus patients.

“Fairgrounds all over the state are being called into service to assist their communities, and we are happy to do our part in helping Orange County through this pandemic,” Michele Richards, chief executive of the OC Fair & Event Center, said in a statement.

The Fair Board will hold its regularly scheduled meeting April 23, but the fair cancellation item is not on the agenda.

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