After 13 years, the Hopkinsville International Festival will take a hiatus in 2024 — one organizers hope is just for one year only.
Nina Shalom, a member of the festival’s planning committee and coordinator of the Global Village, made the announcement on the festival’s Facebook page on Monday.
The two-day event showcased the various cultures represented in the area and often offered talent from Nashville’s Global Education Center and other performers.
The Hopkinsville I-Fest was presented in conjunction with the Hopkinsville Human Rights Commission and funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Kentucky Arts Council.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the festival to move to a virtual format for three years. It returned to an in-person format last year.
Hopkinsville Mayor J.R. Knight said there were two main factors for the festival to be shuttered this year.
click to download audioShalom said on social media the decision was made without a committee meeting called to inform anyone the festival was in danger of being canceled.
She went on to say that she was going to work to raise the support needed to bring the festival back in 2025.
Knight added the city was going to look at other successful festivals to learn how to make Hoptown’s event a long-term successful festival.
click to download audioShalom applauded the city for their past work on the festival but said that as a mother of intercultural children, she wants to live in a city where there is a platform to raise cultural awareness and celebrate diversity, adding every person in the international community deserves to be known, seen and celebrated and their unique gifts shared with the community at large.
She also encouraged more volunteers to step forward to make the festival’s return a possibility.
