BEATRICE - Many events are taking on a different form this year, with the coronavirus pandemic still in place. No exception for a lot of county fairs around Nebraska.


The Gage County Fair is underway, minus the grandstand performances, carnival rides and food vendors. But still, Four-H and FFA exhibitors are able to receive some recognition for the hard work they put in.


"We're making a good show of it and still having all of the shows and the static exhibits, so youth are still able to show, so that's great".


UNL Extension Educator for Gage County Nicole Stoner says youth participants and their families seem happy that they can still show off their entries, even in the reduced format of the fair, this year.  It’s described as a show-and-go participation in beef, horse, dairy and swine shows…..where participants check their animals in for the day of their competition, and then leave at the end of the day.


There were horse and beef shows on Thursday of the fair, with sheep, hog, poultry and rabbit shows rounding on the final days through Sunday.
The fair still has a solid number of entries, despite the need to scale back the county fair this year.


"It was still solid numbers for everything. We expected it to be a little lower, but we're still doing good".


County fairs got a look at how other fairs are working their way through the pandemic this year.
"We kind of used Platte County as an example. They were the first one. They did there's pretty similar to how we're doing ours and it worked well for them, so its working well for us".


In addition to the livestock shows, Four-H and FFA static exhibits are open to the public at both the Four-H Building, and Ag Hall, on the fairgrounds. Stoner says the Gage County Fair and Expo, with its’ theme, Nebraska Strong, has maintained very good sponsor and donor support through all of the adjustments that had to be made in this social distancing year.