The Wright County Fair Board has announced that the Talent Show at the 2021 Wright County Fair has been cancelled.
A release from the Fair Board stated: “The Wright County Fair regrets to announce that the Talent Show scheduled for Thursday, July 22 during the Fair has been cancelled due to not having the minimum number of acts to run a quality show. We expect that participation for 2022 will be back to previous levels as the pandemic issues that affect assembling and perfecting acts are reduced. The Talent Show is the only event affected by this change. All other events scheduled for the 150th Wright County Fair will take place during the Wright County Fair which runs from July 21-25!”
Fair President Ward Westphal said that the Talent Show has seen a decline in numbers over the last few years – a problem made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“With COVID last year, the dance studios were closed down, kids that get together at schools to put an act together couldn’t put stuff together and high school kids that had garage bands weren’t able to do it,” Westphal said. “The participation has been dropping a little over the last few years. It kind of peaked when ‘American Idol’ was huge, but over the last couple of years, it has dropped a little bit.”
Westphal said that, by 2022, hopefully COVID will be a distant memory and the Talent Show will return with more acts looking to compete and that there will be more individuals and groups in all three divisions – pre-teen, teen and open class (all ages).
“We’ll have it back next year,” Westphal said. “I think as things get back to more like what they were before COVID, we’ll see the numbers go back up. The Talent Show has been a tradition at the Fair and we hope that it will continue when things get back to normal.”