For the second year in a row, the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts has canceled in-person events because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Philipsburg’s Heritage Days also announced its cancelation, according to a statement on Thursday from the Arts Festival board of directors.
The Arts Festival board said that even though more people are getting vaccinated, “ongoing public health guidance makes it impossible to produce the event our community has come to know and love.”
Because of the logistics and work involved of producing the July festival that typically brings more than 125,000 people to downtown State College and the Penn State campus, a decision couldn’t wait, according to the statement.
The board explored changing the date, moving to an alternate site and scaling down the festival. None of the options, however, “were satisfactory in allowing us to meet the expectations of artists, participants, and the safety of our community,” the statement said.
“This was an even more difficult decision to make this year than it was last year in the early days of the pandemic” Arts Festival board president Renata Engel said. “The fact is that as exceptional as our staff and volunteers are, our ability to produce an event of this scale with all of the uncertainty that remains about the pandemic is not possible this year.
Staff are working on a virtual festival featuring artists and musicians. Events will be listed at arts-festival.com.
“We have heard from so many of you how important the Festival is to our community and that you want it to return to the streets of State College and on our Penn State campus. And we want that too,” Engel said. We’re committed to making that happen in the future and creating a virtual festival this year. Our enthusiasm for the arts and their important role in our community has only strengthened during this pandemic.”
Arts Fest usually anchors a week of Centre County events in July that, in addition to Heritage Days, also includes the People’s Choice Festival in Boalsburg. People’s Choice organizers, as well as other major summer events like Central PA 4th Fest, have not yet issued a statement about their plans.
The Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts also produces First Night State College on New Year’s Eve. According to the board, that event is expected to take place this year.
