Nebraska Ag Expo postponed

The Nebraska Ag Expo has been postponed from December to February over the concern of COVID-19, according to organizers.

A recent decision by the mayor of Lincoln announced an effort to reduce the transmission of COVID-19, so all events with a capacity of 500 or more must be postponed until Dec. 7. With the move-in date of Dec. 6, this was too close for comfort to allow for modifications at that point. It is possible the state of Nebraska could also hit 25% of its hospital capacity with COVID-19 patients in the upcoming weeks, which would likely trigger Gov. Pete Ricketts to tighten restrictions to 10 people for indoor gatherings.

The number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations has escalated dramatically over the past two weeks in Nebraska and across the country; however, even with all the health and safety protocols put in place, the added risk to all the Expo stakeholders has prompted us to relook at the current dates and general feasibility of the Expo.

After much discussion of these new developments with the exhibit committee, the board of directors of the association and selected exhibitors concurred that holding an event in December was not plausible and to continue with the agriculture show the decision has been made to postpone the Nebraska Ag Expo to Feb. 23 to 25, 2021. Hopefully, this will provide adequate time for COVID-19 cases to decline substantially and perhaps even the deployment of a vaccine.

Show hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, and 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday. Admission and parking at the Lancaster Event Center are free with pre-registration at nebraskaagexpo.com.

The Nebraska Ag Expo is produced by the Iowa-Nebraska Equipment Dealers Association in conjunction with local Nebraska and Iowa farm equipment dealerships.