Will Centre County’s summer festivals like Arts Fest go on in 2021? Here’s their current status
Centre County may be inching closer to “normalcy” when it comes to the pandemic — but some festival organizers cautioned residents not to make their summer plans just yet.
No final decisions have yet come from the county’s largest festivals, such as Arts Fest and Grange Fair, but it’s clear different festivals are approaching this summer in different ways. The Centre County Grange Encampment and Fair is planning as if the fair will still go on from Aug. 20-28, while the nearby Clearfield County Fair has already booked acts — such as comedian Larry the Cable Guy — from Aug. 1-7.
But not everyone shared that same level of optimism, especially the festivals set to be held earlier in the summer.
The Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, widely known simply as Arts Fest, is scheduled to go on from July 7-11 — while Philipsburg’s Heritage Days is slated for July 6-11. But organizers for both events told the Centre Daily Times that despite recent positive movements in battling the pandemic, such as the quicker deployment of vaccines and the state starting to relax outdoor gatherings, many challenges and obstacles still remain.
“While there might be a light a the end of the tunnel, I would still say it’s faint,” said Rick Bryant, executive director of Arts Fest.
Although Gov. Tom Wolf announced earlier this week that outdoor venues can host events up to 20% of their maximum capacity, that didn’t change much for Arts Fest or Heritage Days. Because those events are held downtown and are not gated, it’s exceedingly difficult — if not impossible — to regulate crowd size. On top of that, due to the scale of both events, planning must be done months in advance, and many questions remain unanswered: Will the U.S. achieve herd immunity by July? Will a variant of COVID-19 alter the nation’s plans? And will cases of COVID-19 continue trending downward?
“Maybe I’m too cautious, too concerned and not willing to gamble, but when you hear a couple of your friends have died from this — and I’m 73 so I’d like to have my friends around for a little bit, but especially me — it makes you think,” Heritage Days chairman Jim Pollock said. “It’s a tough situation.”
Neither Arts Fest nor Heritage Days have made final determinations on their respective festivals, but both Pollock and Bryant expect that to come no later than May. Last year, the two festivals announced their cancellations at the same time as the People’s Choice Festival of Pennsylvania Arts & Crafts (July 8-11) and Central PA 4th Fest (July 4) — although it’s unknown if that might be the case again this year.
Officials from 4th Fest and People’s Choice did not respond to messages seeking comment on the status of their respective festivals. And neither festival has updated their website or Facebook page since December. Grange Fair also did not respond to a message but noted on its Facebook page in mid-January that it is planning for the 2021 event and “will continue to follow CDC guidelines.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has offered blanket guidelines for festivals — such as closing drinking fountains — but has not directly weighed in on whether festivals should be held because what’s OK at one location might not be right for another. Instead, the CDC has said that festival organizers and local/state health departments should assess the best course of action.
But, so far, state officials have not yet offered much in the way of advice for festival organizers still on the fence about their events. When asked by the CDT earlier this week about its guidance for such organizers, a Department of Health spokesperson replied with a written statement void of any actual guidance.
“The Wolf Administration and the Department of Health are continuously looking at data, the effectiveness of current mitigation efforts on spread, spread rates, and working towards vaccinations and ensuring that any reopening strategy is done with the public health and safety as the top priority,” spokesperson Maggi Barton wrote. “Simultaneously, we continue to examine our mitigation efforts, which are successfully contributing to the decreasing public spread of this virus.
“We need to keep the course and continue to follow the proven public health practices. We need to remain vigilant and continue to urge Pennsylvanians to stop the spread ...”
Nationally, the CDC’s guidance has obviously meant different things to different organizers. The Columbus (Ohio) Arts Festival from June 10-12 was already canceled, while Cleveland’s Wonderstruck Music Festival intends to go on from July 24-25. The Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee is aiming for September dates, while Nashville’s Country Music Association Fest canceled its June dates earlier this week.
Due to planning purposes, it would be difficult for Centre County’s festivals to switch dates or move locations. (Bryant said the latter isn’t under consideration for Arts Fest.) But, in the meantime, organizers are keeping their fingers crossed and hoping the pandemic is nearing its end — while understanding some summer festivals still likely won’t return until 2022.
“We take this really seriously because we want to represent our community in the best possible way and, obviously, the health of the community is more important,” Pollock said. “It’s not going to be just a shot-in-the-dark decision; we’re going to wait it out and rely on the experts and go from there.”
Added Bryant: “Our foremost concern is our audience’s health and safety and that of the performers and so on. So the public health people say we need to do this right — and I don’t want to have to do this again next year.”
