Starting this year, The Ohio State Fair will no longer allow the sale of confederate flags or related merchandise.
Ohio State Fair spokeswoman Alicia Shoults says the decision to ban the flag and other confederate memorabilia came after much discussion.
“There's been a lot of sensitivity surrounding the confederate flag the last several weeks,” Shoults says.
Fair general manager Virgil Strickler sent a letter to vendors saying that confederate merchandise would be prohibited from sale or display.
Shoults says such merchandise could be offensive to some patrons.
“It's long been a policy of ours that we will prohibit the sale of any merchandise that has offensive lettering, offensive graphics, logos, that type of thing, and so with this year's fair we're really impacting a new prohibition that would prohibit the sale or display of the confederate flag or confederate flag merchandise.”
Vendors who display such merchandise will be asked to remove it.