As many events are canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic and crowd restrictions, the Franklin Area Chamber of Commerce and Applefest Core Committee are working to ensure the fall event doesn’t become another casualty.
“This is the question right now,” Chamber Executive Director Jodi Lewis said as she gestured to a whiteboard set up in a meeting room overrun with piles of Applefest plans. – “Applefest 2020: to be or not to be.”
Lewis said there are two possible plans on the fate of this year’s Applefest, which is scheduled Oct. 2 through 4.
Lewis said this doesn’t stem from an unwillingness to plan another weekend should state mandates on crowd gatherings and events pose a problem. Rather, it would be an inability to reschedule.
“(Planning Applefest) takes us all year; to have a different date would be a lot of work,” she said with a frown.
“We’re doing everything in our power to make it happen.”
Lewis said as of now the event has very few changes to what people are accustomed to, save for no pre-registration for the car show.
“We try to use local entertainment anyway, but this year will be all local,” Lewis said.
The area’s entertainers, she said, were hit hard as a result of the nearly two months that bar and restaurant owners were prohibited from having customers dine and drink inside their establishments.
“This event is all about community,” Lewis said.
While Lewis and the Core Committee continue to plan the event that will “be one for the books” due to the uncertainty and circumstances surrounding it, she said a final decision will be made by Labor Day.
“We don’t want to call it now,” Lewis said.
However, she said, possible cancellation of Applefest couldn’t be left too late due to planning reasons, such as orders that would need to be placed, vendors that would need to be contacted and checks that would need to be written.
Lewis said for many of these vendors, Applefest could be the only show they’re able to attend because of cancellations across the country.
She said sponsors have been “phenomenal,” and that even though they face hardships, they have been willing to give to the event based on the business it brings to town and the morale boost it could provide.
“Everything is telling us we’re doing it right,” Lewis said.
Although she cannot commit with “100% certainty” the festival will go on, Lewis said she and the committee will continue to plan the event and closely monitor guidelines issued.
“I’d rather plan it and cancel it than not plan it at all,” she said.
