GREGG COUNTY, Texas — The 72nd annual Gregg County Fair is making quite a comeback with a few new rides, food, and vendors.
“We have about 150 inside and we got about 60 or 70 outside, we got bands, we got petting zoos, anything you want out here,” said Billy Clay, General Manager.
With more vendors this year, Clay says he’s looking forward to seeing the economic impact this year’s fair will have.
After last year’s cancellation due to COVID-19, the fair lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue.
“Everybody suffered, businesses who would have come through," Clay said. "Everybody that shut down lost revenue. Loss of income for that many amounts of months is terrible.”
Vendors are looking forward to returning back to some sort of normalcy.
“It’s great to get our economy going," Brent Cleghorn said, vendor of Mama C's Teriyaki. "We need to work we need to generate income and it’s great to be a part of that."
“People are just excited to get out. They’re wanting to get back to some semblance of normal and I think the Gregg County Fair is a fine example of that,” said Lisa Guwett, Vendor and Independent Consultant of Usborne Books and More.
With Greg County's COVID-19 cases up by 19.2% Clay is confident this won’t be a super-spreader event.
“There's hand sanitizer at every gate, at every ATM machine, the vendors have it," Clay said. "We’re doing everything possible to make it safe. Just come out and have some fun."
The fair is set to start Friday, Sept. 10 at 6 p.m. until 12 a.m. and will continue until September 18th.