The family-friendly Arts Festival would have celebrated its 33rd anniversary this summer.
Another major local event has fallen victim to the coronavirus pandemic: Methow Arts announced last week that it has canceled the 2020 Arts Festival.
The Arts Festival – a family-oriented event that for more than three decades has taken over Twisp Town Park with a variety of games, activities, music and other entertainment after the Fourth of July Parade down Glover Street – was canceled for the first time in its 32-year history, Methow Arts said in a press release.
According to the Methow Arts release, “In 1987, a group of Methow Valley artists and community members envisioned a festival that was dedicated to reveling in the joys of art in its myriad forms: performing arts, visual arts, literary arts, and traditional arts. The festivals they created in those early years included music, painting, sculpture, as well as vibrant colors and lively sounds.”
“Methow Arts does not anticipate that gatherings of nearly 2,000 people will be permitted (or prudent) in early July, and social distancing guidelines are incompatible with the space and spirit of Arts Fest, which is a celebration of community cohesiveness, as much as it is a celebration of the beauty and power of the arts,” the release said.
The event has grown to include 1,800 or more participants, more than 100 volunteers, entertainment ranging from local talent to regional and nationally recognized musicians, dancers and other performers, informational booths, aerialists, a food court and beer garden, face painting, and hands-on art booths, the press release said.
The 33rd annual Arts Fest was to have been headlined by the Canadian “Subcontinental/Pop” band Delhi to Dublin.
Earlier, the Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival, Winthrop Rhythm & Blues Festival, Methow Valley Labor Day Rodeo and all Confluence Gallery and Art Center summer events including the annual Home Tour were canceled, and the Winthrop ’49er Days celebration was tentatively postponed.
