Santa Clara County fairgrounds officials have changed the date of the annual fair to keep their carnival contracts. Local families of young farmers are in uproar.
The county fair will no longer happen in the traditional month of July. Instead, it will be held Aug. 19-23 to accommodate post-pandemic shifts to fair vendors’ schedules, and will likely be the date for future years. The change was announced last December, months after youth farmers — some of whom will start college out of town by the new date — have already purchased cattle and bred sows. Now they’ll be forced to balance their participation in the junior livestock shows with their first week of school. Parents said the date change will affect some youth finalizing their farmer degrees. It also means three extra weeks of financial burden to feed and care for livestock.
But that’s not what vexed families the most…