Arizona State Fair will remain at state fairgrounds in Phoenix for 2021 event
Aug 5, 2021, 8:05 PM | Updated: Aug 6, 2021, 11:16 am
(Arizona State Fair Facebook Photo)
(Arizona State Fair Facebook Photo)
PHOENIX — The Arizona State Fair will remain at the location it has spent more than a century at after a plan to move this year’s event to Chandler was scrapped, the fair’s board announced Thursday.
The fair’s board unanimously voted in March to move the 2021 event to Gila River’s Wild Horse Pass near Chandler for more space after the event was canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
An inability to secure the necessary infrastructure in time to hold the event at the Gila River Indian Community site this fall prompted the fair to stay at the fairgrounds on 19th Avenue and McDowell Road in Phoenix, according to a press release.
The fair will take place Oct. 2-30.
“Due to the limited timeframe and supply concerns, keeping the Fair at its existing home makes the most sense for 2021,” Jonathan Lines, chairman of the Arizona Exposition and State Fair Board, said in the release.
COVID-19 related supply chain problems across the country are causing delays in materials and supplies needed to hold the fair, according to the release, and manufacturers were unable to guarantee on-time delivery for the event.
While the 2021 event will remain at the fairgrounds in Phoenix, the fair’s board will continue to study the possibility of moving it to the reservation site in 2022.
“We remain committed to working with the Gila River Indian Community to see if we can move the Fair to the Gila River Indian Reservation in 2022 in a manner that is mutually beneficial to both sides,” Lines said.
The fair’s board toured the Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, near Interstate 10 and Wild Horse Pass Boulevard, in March before previously voting to move the 2021 event to the facility.
Gila River’s Wild Horse Pass offered to hold a fair in March, but the timeline was too ambitious as the fair worked to finalize dates for the October event.
The fair attracted more than 1.2 million visitors in 2019, the highest total seen in more than a decade.
In the past year, the state fairgrounds have been used by Banner Health to administer COVID-19 vaccines and housed the Arizona Senate Republicans’ audit of the 2020 election results in Maricopa County.
