Annual pumpkin fest canceled for 2nd straight year

(Photo Source: Cortland Voice Photo Files).

The 25th year and celebration of the annual Great Cortland Pumpkinfest will be on hold until 2022, following the committee’s announcement via its Facebook page Wednesday afternoon that the festival has been canceled for a second-straight year.

Elizabeth Cole and Mindy Stevenson, festival co-chairs for the past decade, said with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the Delta variant spreading quickly, the decision to cancel this year’s festival “was not taken lightly.”

“Our continued concern is for the health and safety of our vendors, crafters, volunteers, and guests,” stated in a news release Friday morning.

“Concerns drove it home the past couple of weeks,” Cole said.

Cole said a slew of factors played into the committee announcing the cancellation of the festival, one of them being the amount of patrons allowed at a festival in New York state.

Before the month of May, state guidelines noted 150-200 guests were allowed at a festival at a time. The state revised those guidelines in mid-May, with the amount of guests allowed at a festival increasing to 250-500.

Based on the space available for the pumpkinfest, which has been held annually at the Cortland County courthouse park during the first weekend of October, Cole said the increased limit of patrons still prevented the festival from having a “full-on experience.”

Cole said the number of guests allowed to attend a festival didn’t come close to what pumpkinfest averaged before the pandemic.

“We would get a couple thousand guests to come to the festival throughout the weekend,” she said.

Timing of the state’s guidelines on festivals delayed the committee’s planning process, Stevenson said.

“We just weren’t quite set up in that way to allow those things,” she said. “It didn’t pan out in the end.”

Planning for the festival typically starts in the winter, Cole said.

“Not being able to plan in the winter with many unknowns and the vaccine not available in the winter made it a complete no-go situation,” she added.

Since the pumpkinfest is family oriented, Cole said, a large portion of the attendees this year would’ve been ineligible to be vaccinated.

“We wouldn’t have been able to keep track of who’s vaccinated and unvaccinated, as well implementing social distancing and keeping up with cleaning protocols,” she said. “Even though we’re an outdoor festival, there was still a lot to consider in those areas.”

Looking ahead and given the scenario of the pandemic, Cole mentioned “it’s hard to say” what the festival will look like in 2022.

“We will check in with the committee in a couple months to see what’s possible with next year’s festival,” Stevenson said.