Rain Day and Whiskey Rebellion festivals cancelled
The coronavirus has wiped festivals, concerts and other events off the calendar in May and June, and now it’s starting to claim summertime staples scheduled for July.
Rain Day, the annual street festival that happens in Waynesburg every July 29, has been called off this year. The festival’s website states it was “a tough decision and very sad decision to make.”
It also stated that organizers are “working diligently in this planning process and are coming up with new ways to modify the event and continue this celebration virtually and stay connected when we cannot gather physically.” Some ideas include having entertainment, contests and other events happen online.
“We don’t have any ideas that are set in stone,” according to Athena Bowman, coordinator of Rain Day. “But these are things that we’re talking about.”
Bowman explained that the Rain Day celebration was called off three months in advance due to all the uncertainties that have come with the coronavirus, plus the fact that festival organizers were getting close to having to make commitments to festival vendors and sponsors.
“We’re trying to reinvent the festival,” Bowman said.
Washington’s Whiskey Rebellion Festival, which had been set for July 9-12, is also being canceled. The festival highlights the area’s historic character and heritage and is one of the biggest events in the city, drawing somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 visitors every year. The festival is being scrapped “out of an abundance of caution due to ongoing COVID-19 concerns,” festival co-chair Joseph Piszczor said in a statement.
Like other festivals that have been canceled, the organizers of the Whiskey Rebellion Festival are hoping to have online, virtual events this summer. Details will be announced at www.whiskeyrebellionfestival.com social media. Assuming large crowds can safely gather by next summer, the next Whiskey Rebellion Festival will be July 8-11, 2021.
“Hopefully, we will get the ‘all’s clear’ in 2021 to hold the festival during its usual second weekend in July next year,” said Joe DeThomas, one of the festival co-chairs.