It will be a sad day come Sept. 2 when the 174th annual Canfield Fair would have been kicking off.

The event, of course, has been an end-of-summer staple for hundreds of thousands of people each year, including many expatriates who return home each year to take part in the massive annual gathering.

Unfortunately, it was the “massive” part that has led the Canfield Fair Board to make the very difficult decision this week to cancel most of this year’s fair.

After months of planning and struggles to pull off the event despite growing concerns over spiking novel coronavirus cases, fair board officials finally acknowledged it would be impossible to keep the tens of thousands of fairgoers on the fairgrounds any given day socially distanced.

George Roman, director of grandstand entertainment and concessions, confirmed just before noon Tuesday that the fair board “stretched out” as long as it could on its decision.

We, like you, are saddened by the cancellation. Indeed, it’s just one more event, celebration or tradition that has been ripped from us during this very difficult year of the global pandemic.

But we suspect no one is more saddened by the decision than the organizers themselves who have been working so hard on the incredible annual undertaking.

Close to 700 booths and vendors — many coming from out of state — will be impacted by this year’s cancellation, and the new undertaking now involves notifying everyone of the decision via email, phone calls, text messages, postal mail and social media.

The cancellation will have a far-reaching economic effect, as well, since hotels, restaurants and even local residents who use their yards as parking lots will suffer financial losses when crowds don’t descend on Canfield as usual.

We encourage out-of-towners to come home anyway, to spend time with family over the Labor Day weekend, to stay in local hotels and to frequent area restaurants, retailers and other places of business. These businesses have been incredibly hard-hit by this year’s pandemic and, now, the loss of local fair traffic, will only exacerbate those struggles.

The good news is, however, the fair board has been able to figure out a way to ensure the 4-H program will continue as usual.

The area’s youth who work so hard throughout the year to prepare their projects and livestock deserve no less than that.

Junior fair participants and their immediate family members still will be able to attend and participate in junior fair events over Labor Day weekend, although a signed waiver will be required from members and their parents, with a wristband signifying compliance.

Also, 4-H members will have the opportunity to auction their projects.

Since the junior fair will be closed to the general public, the 4-H team now is considering ways to stream the auctions online. Judging and showing will continue as well.

At the end of the day, the decision was correct, in order to guarantee the health and safety of fairgoers, 4-H members and fair workers.

Yes, we will bemoan this year’s loss and commiserate.

But after that, we all should start planning now for the 175th Canfield Fair. According to the Canfield Fair website, there are only 419 days to go before it kicks off Sept. 1, 2021.