At one time, the “Music & Food Festival” scheduled for October 23 at West Cadiz Park and the first-ever “GLO-CADIZ Balloon Festival” set for November 6 at Lake Barkley State Park were two events tightly packing the community calendar.
Now, that’s not the case.
During Tuesday’s Cadiz-Trigg County Tourist & Convention Commission meeting, Executive Director Bill Stevens said both of those anticipated events are off for this year due to a myriad of factors —most importantly a lack of volunteer support through the “Friends of Tourism,” as well as escalating COVID-19 concerns eerily reminiscent of the coronavirus spike the nation experienced in the fall of 2020.
Stevens said that the “Music & Food Festival” usually took place during the summer and had been moved to this fall for better temperatures and that it was still possible that something similar would be scheduled during Christmas-time.
Stevens also noted that it wasn’t yet clear if the 2021 Trigg County Ham Festival would yet commence. As of now, all systems are go, but any likely postponements and cancellations won’t come until two weeks out of the event — and would almost certainly be tied to COVID-19 concerns. Stevens added his office has fielded several calls wondering if the event is occurring, particularly in the shadow of Hopkinsville’s “Summer Salute,” Oak Grove’s “Butterfly Festival” and Princeton’s “Black Patch Festival” — events the Ham Festival can typically be compared to.
He and his staff are telling callers: “so far, so good.”
In other news:
The commission voted in favor of moving back to bi-monthly meetings to legally meet a six-times-per-year quota, and they’ll move to a virtual model beginning at the next session scheduled for early November.
The commission also voted in favor of paying the City of Cadiz $20,000 in support for 2021 Ham Festival entertainment expenses, which can be used to procure vendors, help pay for musical acts or be spent in a generalized manner in an effort to improve and bolster already lined-up entertainment.
