Seaboard Festival, Ag Fair cancelled due to COVID-19

HAMLET — The annual Seaboard Festival and Hamlet Lions Club’s Agricultural Fair have been cancelled due to safety concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Seaboard Festival made their announcement on Facebook Friday shortly after being contacted by the Daily Journal for comment. Mayor Bill Bayless, past president of the Hamlet Lions Club, announced this week that the Agricultural Fair would also be cancelled.

“It is with the saddest of hearts that we must announce the cancellation of the 2020 Seaboard Festival due to the current ongoing pandemic,” read the announcement on the official Seaboard Facebook page. “Please know that we did not make this decision lightly and consulted with medical professionals, the City of Hamlet, vendors and concerned citizens of the community and all of the feedback led to the same conclusion, that cancellation was inevitable.

“Also with the expected ongoing state mandates concerning large gatherings, we can’t imagine being able to gather 20,000 people with no way to social distance in 11 short weeks,” the post continued.

Bayless said in an interview Friday that the Lions are regretful that they can’t put on the Ag Fair this year, which brought out amusement park rides and other attractions to the fairgrounds in an effort to raise money for the blind and hearing impaired. The 50-plus year fair is typically held at the end of September or beginning of October.

Chris Carpenter, president of the Seaboard Festival’s governing board, said that over the last several months, the board had been planning as if they were going to go forward with the festival like normal, hoping that conditions would improve. Initially, September was the month they had set as the deadline for their decision on whether to hold the festival, which is typically held at the end of October.

“Once the state didn’t leave Phase 2 and we saw everything else cancelled we realized we couldn’t wait until September,” Carpenter said. “Our goal was to hold out to September to watch things get better, but things haven’t.”

Instead, the board has gotten a head start on planning for next year’s festival, according to Carpenter.

“As president, I never thought that we would face a decision like this but we’re all facing the pandemic together and sadly everyone is having to make tough choices like this,” he said.

The Seaboard Festival 5K will go on virtually. The 5K is held on Oct. 31. Participants will be able to pick up their race packets the day before and then, rather than run the race in a crowd, they will run on their own wherever they feel safe, Carpenter said. For more information, reach out to the Seaboard Festival 5K Facebook page.