ELIZABETHTOWN — As COVID-19 continues more events are seeing cancellations instead of postponements.
For the most part Bladen County’s slew of fall events has been wiped out, leaving the remainder of the calendar year with the highly popular Christmas parade in downtown Elizabethtown on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend.
Monday night, the Elizabethtown Town Council voted to cancel November’s fourth annual Pork & Beats Festival. Wednesday, Lu Mil Vineyard made the painful decision to cancel October’s 14th annual North Carolina Grape Festival.
October’s 14th annual Beast Fest in Bladenboro has also been a casualty of the coronavirus, as is September’s 28th annual Dublin Peanut Festival. May’s — then August’s — 42nd annual White Lake Water Festival was another victim.
All are on a list that includes but isn’t limited to the 28th annual Old Fashion Planter’s Day in Ammon, Kelly’s Spring Fest, a spring version of Clarkton’s Farm Fest, and the countywide Relay for Life in Elizabethtown. This year’s move to consolidate the concert series in Elizabethtown and White Lake, now known as Sunset Jams for both towns, got off the ground in planning but never stepped to the mic.
Eventually, they were reduced in number and ultimately canceled completely.
Monday’s vote by the Town Council was unanimous.
The Grape Festival’s email said, “After much discussion and difficult decisions, we have decided to cancel this year’s festival. We feel that the most important thing is the safety and well-being of our customers, employees, and their families.”
“We waited, we feel like, the latest that we could,” said Denise Bridgers with Lu Mil. “We do not like to cancel things and this is a fun event for the whole community. This is going to be a large disappointment for the community.”
The event draws many vendors, including yard sale tables.
“People tell me all the time they set stuff aside for the yard sale,” Bridgers said. “We hate to cancel but this if for the safety and well being of the public and our staff.
“We are going to go bigger and better next year. It’s really for fun for the whole family.”
The 2018 Grape Festival was held after Florence came through. Last year there were over 100 vendors, and multiple food options. Gem mining, a petting zoo and other activities made the day a must attend event that easily draws more than a thousand visitors.
Lu Mil, the email indicated, will continue their other services with restrictions in place.
Terry Nance, with Beast Fest in Bladenboro, said the event was cancelled in July.
“We hated to cancel it, and we didn’t want to,” he said. “But there’s so much work that goes on behind the scenes.”
Nance said that there were already a lot things going on, and they didn’t want to put the event on if they couldn’t make it first class like always.
“If it wasn’t going to be first class, we felt it would be best if we didn’t put it on, and it doesn’t look like anything is going to change anytime soon,” he said. “We are hoping that maybe we can do something for the kids sometime in October. We may try to pull off our trunk or treat.”
The next event that is potentially still on the calendar would be around the weekend of Black Friday, when Elizabethtown usually holds its Christmas parade.
Terri Dennison, executive director of the Elizabethtown-White Lake Area Chamber of Commerce, has said that there are hopes to potentially expand events and activities that weekend.
Emily M. Williams can be reached at 910-247-9133 or ewilliams@bladenjournal.com.
The Link LonkAugust 06, 2020 at 08:54PM
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Tourism hit: Pork & Beats, Grape Festival latest virus casualties - Elizabethtown Bladen Journal
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