{"id":217789,"date":"2026-06-12T21:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T21:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/217789\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T21:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T21:29:07","slug":"report-pennsylvania-others-may-not-go-to-great-american-state-fair-pennsylvania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/217789\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Pennsylvania, others may not go to \u2018Great American State Fair\u2019 | Pennsylvania"},"content":{"rendered":"

(The Center Square) \u2013 The Great American State Fair<\/a> is scheduled to kick off in Washington D.C. in less than two weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While all 50 states and six territories have been invited to the event billed as a celebration for the country\u2019s 250th birthday, some states have declined the invitation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NOTUS<\/a> reported on June 11 that officials from Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Oregon confirmed that they would not be sending a delegation to the fair, following the news that musical acts decided that they did not want to partake<\/a> in the event. At least two states remain undecided.<\/p>\n

As of Friday afternoon, it remains unclear if Pennsylvania will be participating in the event.<\/p>\n

The Shapiro administration referred the Center Square to Pennsylvania\u2019s Department of Community & Economic Development, DCED<\/a>, when asked if they are planning to participate in the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The department did not respond to a request for comment as of Friday afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

DCED told Axios<\/a> in a story published on June 3 that \u201cno final decision\u201d was made regarding Pennsylvania\u2019s participation in the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cA world-class exposition and modern-day World\u2019s Fair celebrating the people, traditions, innovations, and spirit that make America the greatest nation on Earth,\u201d is how the fair is described on its website<\/a>. \u201cFeaturing more than 150 exhibits from all 56 states and territories, businesses, innovators, and civic organizations, the Great American State Fair will showcase the very best of America through state pavilions, industry displays, family-friendly attractions, movie screenings, musical performances, military ensembles, spectacular flyovers, daily cultural programming, and an iconic Ferris wheel on the National Mall.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, reporting from various outlets, including the New York Times<\/a> and NOTUS<\/a>, paints a different picture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Officials from some states were concerned about the potential politicization of the event, according to NOTUS, which coincided with Trump<\/a> saying on social media that he would open the fair<\/a> with \u201cthe Greatest Rally, EVER!\u201d after several music acts dropped out.<\/p>\n

Freedom 250, which was created by the Trump administration last year, is the group planning several events this summer, including the UFC fight<\/a> at the White House lawn Sunday and the fair. NOTUS reported that the Trump administration is withholding<\/a> tens of millions of dollars from America 250<\/a>, the bipartisan commission created by Congress in 2016 which aims to engage, educate, and unite Americans for the 250th birthday celebration.<\/p>\n

As America 250 is facing a $100 million shortfall, the Trump administration has \u201cfunneled at least $68 million to Freedom 250,\u201d according to NOTUS.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fair<\/a> is scheduled to take place on the National Mall between 14th Street and 4th Street from June 25 to July 10. Each day of the fair has different programming themes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The setup for the fair is already underway, according to the New York Times<\/a>, saying that the plan is to \u201cfeature food from the 50 states and six territories, as well as military demonstrations and a 110-foot Ferris wheel.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(The Center Square) \u2013 The Great American State Fair is scheduled to kick off in Washington D.C. in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1446,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-217789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-general","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}