Features
Storm Tests Fair Standards
Officials recently decided to delay a Toby Keith performance at the York Fair in Pennsylvania when a heavy thunderstorm rolled through the region.
Fair President Eugene Schenck told the local Daily Record his officials received a briefing on handling severe weather following the Indiana State Fair stage collapse in August. So when the storm hit York Fair Sept. 14, a plan was already in place that ranked safety as priority No. 1.
Thousands of Keith fans that lined the stage area were asked to retreat indoors or to the safety of the covered grandstand area to wait out the storm, he explained.
And if a tornado warning had been issued, the show would have been canceled and all fairgoers would have been moved to permanent structures on the fairgrounds, he added.
Luckily, the rains subsided after about an hour and Keith was able to take the stage.
“I think we made the best of a challenging night,” Schenck told the Record. “We were fortunate.”