COVID takes out Dickens Festival
By JILL DENNING GACKLE
For 26 years, the Dickens Village Festival bloomed through bitter cold, snowstorms and even theft from its checking account.
This unlikely winter festival for more than a quarter of a century canceled only three days of its traditional seven day festival between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
One year, whiteout conditions canceled the final day of the festival and another time the final weekend was canceled because of a snowstorm. In 1997, the organization’s bookkeeper cleaned out the bank account bringing the organization to its knees.
This year it was a worldwide pandemic that knocked the wind out of the Christmas Capitol’s winter festival.
The Dickens Committee announced Saturday, With a heavy heart, we sadly announce the cancellation of the 2020 Dickens Village Festival in Garrison. The Committee held out hope for this years festival to spread Christmas cheer to our businesses, organizations, volunteers, and our guests. The rising pandemic has continued to bring many challenges and uncertainty and unfortunately has left us, with the help of our sponsors, to make the toughest decision.
“It’s sad. It was one of the toughest decisions,” said McKaila Matteson, Convention and Visitors Bureau director and Dickens Committee member. “We always knew there was that small possibility. But we held out hope.”
The committee of seven planned for the worst, but forged on with a strong dose of hope that the festival in some form would happen.
