Three County Fair in Northampton announces furloughs, pay cuts; officials plead for upcoming shows to go on
Updated Dec 23, 2020;
Facebook Share
NORTHAMPTON The Three County Fair said Wednesday that it’s instituting a 14% pay cut for senior management and staggered furloughs for all employees to close a budget gap created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Furloughs could be extended if the fairgrounds are unable to host events this spring that were postponed in 2020.
Those events include over a dozen different horse shows from April through October 2020, plus a variety of concerts and festivals, according to James Przypek, general manager of the Three County Fair.
The fiscal crisis at the Del Mar Fairgrounds continues to deepen.
In the last two weeks, fairgrounds officials canceled all entertainment contracts for 2021, including grandstand and midway shows for the annual San Diego County Fair,
and all upcoming equestrian events at the 64-acre Del Mar Horsepark, two miles east of the fairgrounds. People who board their horses there have been told that they will have to find somewhere else to stable their animals after March 31.
The latest developments again call into question the immediate future of the fairgrounds and the long-term viability of horse-racing, equestrian shows, and even the county fair at the state-owned property that has been operating on a bare-bones budget since the pandemic hit.