California Mid-State Fair lifts hat ban

This past week, California Mid-State Fairgoers wearing New York Yankees and Pittsburgh Pirates hats were asked to remove them before entering the fairgrounds.

The Paso Robles Police Department said those specific hats have recently been associated with gang activity. In the interest of public safety, they banned the hats from the Paso Robles Event Center.

“We’ve had some problems in the city of Paso Robles with some juvenile fights that we identified as potentially gang-related. During the fair, things usually tend to escalate because you have a lot of people all in one place,” said Commander Tod Rehner.

Tom Keffury, Head of Marketing for the California Mid-State Fair, says fair security enforced the hat ban after communicating with the Paso Robles Police Department.

“Working in conjunction with Paso Robles PD, they ask us to look for certain things. We did. We enforced that,” Keffury said. “It’s not so much about gang affiliation as it is about people trying to cause problems on the grounds.”

On Thursday, the fair’s Head of Security lifted the ban.

“At this point, there’s no ban and you can wear whatever you’d like,” Keffury said.

He added that law enforcement will continue to have a strong presence on the fairgrounds for the duration of the fair.

“We have every law enforcement agency on grounds, so we’d like to think this is the safest place in the county right now,” Keffury said.