Cleveland County Fair postponed due to rain, wind concerns

SHELBY, N.C. — For 100 years, the Cleveland County Fair has been the main attraction in Shelby. But this year, it’s being postponed until Friday afternoon.

Thursday was supposed to be opening day, but that changed as Hurricane Helene inched closer toward the area. The turnstiles were silent and the only real sound came from the rain and wind that ruined the first day of the 100th annual fair.

“It’s a hard pill to swallow sometimes,” said vendor Drew Ledbetter.

He had crews stocking sodas Thursday in anticipation of Friday afternoon.

“Nobody wants to come out and walk around in the rain,” he said.

Emergency management director Perry Davis said if they had kept opening day as Thursday, some people may have tried to attend, but conditions are too unsafe. He said the rain alone could cause flooding and would have made parking in the grass a sloppy mess for hundreds of fairgoers.

“Most people don’t have all-terrain vehicles,” Davis said.

He said a combination of the rain and the wind forced them to shut down. He said the biggest rides, like the Ferris wheel, might look suspectable to high winds, but the huge anchors can keep it in place through gusts of 50 to 70 mph.

Small tent vendors aren’t so lucky. Many of them use pop-up tents. Twenty to 40 mph wind gusts from Helene can easily lift them.

“They basically put up a steel supporting structure around it, tried to secure it as best they can in the ground,” Davis said. “However, some of those just consist of aluminum poles and tarps.”

Ledbetter’s units are in wood and brick structures, but he is willing to let Mother Nature be the main event on the midway Thursday and try again on day two.

Emergency officials expect that whatever comes from Helene will be gone by Friday evening. That’s important because some of their largest crowds are usually there on the first weekend of the fair.

The weather has interrupted the fair several times before. In 2022, it shut down for several hours when a possible funnel cloud was spotted nearby.

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Hurricane Helene upgrades to Category 2 storm; here’s how it’ll impact the Carolinas

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