Ashley Hunter
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Over in Madison County, event organizers have canceled a county-wide tradition of almost 40 years.
Due to concerns related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, the Madison County Chamber of Commerce recently announced that it was canceling the 2020 Down Home Days Festival and Parade, which would have been held in late April.
This cancelation came amongst the recommendations of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), that advises groups and events to not congregate more than 10 people into one place.
Due to the fact that the Down Home Days events gather hundreds of people, the Madison County Chamber of Commerce chose to shut down the community event and refocus their efforts on rejuvenating the event for next year.
All around the state, similar spring and summer festivals are facing similar fates; in Leon County, Springtime Tallahassee (scheduled for March 27-28) and Word of the South (scheduled for April 3-5) were both canceled, or postponed, in early March.
This left the Jefferson County Watermelon Festival, which takes place annually in June, in a precarious position.
While June is still several months away, it is unknown how long COVID-19 can remain – there is no guideline to show whether or not the crisis will be over by the time calendars flip to June.
In combination with that, the Monticello-Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce, who hosts the festival, has to begin preparation and planning, including purchasing of festival items, several months in advance.
It isn't possible for the festival's board of directors to wait until June to make their decision on the matter – and choosing to hold the festival (only to cancel it later in the year) would result in monetary loss for the tightly budgeted chamber.
On Tuesday, March 24, the board of directors overseeing the Watermelon Festival met virtually in order to discuss the fate of the 2020 festival.
The board weighed the pros and cons of holding or canceling this year's event – which is a large visitor pull, local commerce-generating and public attraction for the county – before ultimately making a decision.
At least, a tentative decision.
“We're going to play it out, see how it goes and move forward” says Chamber of Commerce Director Katrina Richardson.
“As of right now,” Richardson adds, the festival is still planned.
This decision, however, is by no means a firm commitment to the festival.
As cases of COVID-19 increase nationally, globally and within the state, the board of directors will be continuing to monitor the crisis and weigh whether or not holding the festival will pose a health risk to vendors and participants.
For now, the show will go on, but by Tuesday, April 21, Richardson says that the board will make their final decision on whether to cut or continue the festival for this year.
This ruling also applies to the Jefferson County Watermelon Pageant.
Should the 2020 Watermelon Festival continue as planned, it will be held June 20, with surrounding events taking place in the weeks leading up to that date.
This will be the 70th anniversary of the Jefferson County Watermelon Festival.