The 31st annual Arkansas Big Buck Classic, a popular hunting expo scheduled for March 12-14 at the Arkansas State Fairgrounds, has been canceled.
Tommy Murchison, Arkansas Big Buck Classic promoter, said that managing the flow of a crowd that could number as many as 12,000 is not feasible in a way that would be fair to show-goers and vendors.
“If we had what I would call a very, very light crowd of, say, 5,000, we open at 9 and at 11 we would have buildings at full capacity,” Murchison said. “People would be standing in line waiting to get into those buildings. We could have 2,000 to 3,000 people by 1 standing outside. That would subject our patrons and vendors to such a restrictive environment, and that’s just wrong. That’s not our brand. That’s not the way we are as people.”
Since 1990, the Big Buck Classic has been held during the fourth weekend in January.
Originally scheduled for Jan. 22-24, the Big Buck Classic was postponed to March 12-14 due to covid-19 concerns. Murchison said that vendor schedules and logistics make it impossible to reschedule the event in 2021.