For the first time in recent memory, there will be no Tallahatchie County Fair this year.
County Extension Director Jimbo Burkhalter confirmed the news last week.
Burkhalter said C & M Southern Midways, the Eastaboga, Ala.-based company that had provided the carnival midway at the local fair for the past six years, notified the local Extension Service office in March that “they would no longer be able to do the Tallahatchie County Fair.”
Burkhalter said he has tried without success to book another carnival company.
“All of the carnivals that I talked to have their schedules lined up for at least three years in advance,” he noted. “They didn’t have room for us right now.”
Burkhalter said C & M cited sagging revenues from a small fair crowd as a reason for canceling, but the Extension officer said he saw the handwriting on the wall three years ago, when the company decided to move the date of the event from the first week of September to early August. Burkhalter said local officials had “no choice” in the matter.
“When I first started working for the Extension Service in Tallahatchie County in June 1997, the fair was always either in September or October,” said Burkhalter. “Last year, the fair was held the first weekend in August. School had just started, families had spent their money on school supplies and it was extremely hot. A lot of things contributed to the failure of turnout at the fair.”
Burkhalter said fair attendance numbers had been “decreasing every year” since C & M’s 2014 decision.
Burkhalter said he is disappointed that there will be no fair this year.
“I can’t remember when we have not had a carnival in Tallahatchie County. If someone can remember when the first carnival hit town, please call the office and let us know,” he noted. “I know that it has been [held] at the Tallahatchie County Fairgrounds since I was a kid, and I’m old. I remember coming to watch the Parchman band perform.”
Burkhalter pledged to “continue to search for another carnival that will be a good fit for us and will treat us well.”
He asked for public input, suggesting people visit or call the local Extension office in Charleston at 647-8746.
Burkhalter said the Tallahatchie County Homemaker Volunteers, who “have always done a wonderful job organizing and displaying the women’s exhibits every year during the fair,” may hold their event despite the lack of a carnival. “That will totally be their decision,” he added.
IN THE PHOTO: A worker for C & M Southern Midways prepares to unload a children's ride in advance of the 2016 Tallahatchie County Fair. (Sun-Sentinel file photo by Clay McFerrin)
