2021 LA County Fair Canceled Over COVID Concerns, Will Hold 'Smaller' Celebration

POMONA (CBSLA) – Fans of the Los Angeles County Fair will have to wait another year for the full experience.

Officials announced Tuesday the Pomona Fairplex event will be canceled and "a smaller, safer celebration" will be held in its place at some point.

The fair released a statement reading in part: "After canceling the Fair last year and with the availability of a vaccine this year, we were hoping to be able to welcome guests back in 2021 to one of the largest county fairs in the country. But with coronavirus cases unsteady, and the unpredictability of mutating strains and vaccine roll-outs to larger audiences, it would be fiscally unfeasible to plan a grand celebration only to be told a Fair could not be held."

Fairplex interim CEO Walter M. Marquez noted that due to the months of planning that go into the Fair, plans to organize and invest funding, only to eventually have to cancel, wasn't feasible.

"To say we are heartbroken is an understatement," said Marquez. "The LA County Fair is our flagship event, the foundation on which we build our community engagement. But we, in good conscience, could not move forward with planning our big, campus-wide Fair this year, not knowing where the pandemic would be, come summer. It is a public health and financial risk for us to do so."

Like most large-scale fairs and theme parks, the LA County Fair was closed in 2020 due to the pandemic in accordance with county and state guidelines.

The Fairplex is currently being used as a COVID-19 vaccination site.