A widely-circulated rumour confirmed late Tuesday that a beloved annual rural fair has been cancelled, despite the fair currently being scheduled, advertised, ticketed, and physically under construction in a field outside the village.

The cancellation was first reported by a local community member, who shared the development “to save people the drive,” and was rapidly corroborated by a second resident who said she had also heard. By Wednesday morning, the news had been independently confirmed by sixteen separate residents, none of whom had spoken to anyone affiliated with the fair.

“My cousin’s husband works construction and he said they were taking down the rides,” a longtime resident told The Corn. “I don’t know which rides. I don’t know which construction company. But I trust him.”

A representative for the fair, reached by telephone on the second ring, expressed surprise.

“We are setting up the midway right now,” she said. “I am looking at it. The Ferris wheel is here. I can see the Ferris wheel from where I am standing.”

Pressed on whether the fair was, in fact, cancelled, the representative said she did not believe so, citing the Ferris wheel, the tickets that had been sold, the vendors who had paid for booths, the printed schedule, the radio ads, and her own job, which is organizing the fair, which is happening.

The community has nevertheless continued to spread word of the cancellation, with several residents expressing relief that they “didn’t drive all the way out there for nothing.” When informed that the fair was proceeding as planned, multiple residents indicated they remained skeptical.

“That’s what they always say,” said one. “And then it gets cancelled.”