(June 2020) – The coronavirus has taken its toll on area festivals, concerts and events, to say the least.  Since the lockdown that occurred in mid-March, nearly all entertainment and recreational activities scheduled for April, May and now June have been canceled or postponed.
But as restrictions began to ease in May for retailers, restaurants and professional services in Indiana and Kentucky, a glimmer of hope emerged from the ashes. Some event organizers remained committed to hanging on by not canceling until it becomes absolutely necessary.

Problem is, no one can predict how the next few weeks and months will go. Will there be a relapse of Covid-19 cases in the United States due to relaxed measures, forcing a second lockdown? One can only hope for the best.
Many major events such as the Kentucky Oaks and Derby and the Indianapolis 500 have pushed their dates farther into the year. The Oaks and Derby are now set for Sept. 4-5, with Thunder Over Louisville now planned for Aug. 15. The Indy 500 is rescheduled for Aug. 23.
Churchill Downs began holding horse races May 16 – but without fans in the stands. NASCAR began racing again on May 17, without fans. Pro golf plans to resume matches in mid-June, without a gallery. Pro basketball, baseball and hockey are still trying to figure something out. It is anyone’s guess right now what the NFL season will look like. The same goes for college sports this fall.
Locally, most county fairs have been canceled. But as of June 1, Carroll County, Ky., still plans to hold its fair in mid-August.
The inaugural Madison River Jam, which was being planned to replace RiverRoots Music & Folk Art Festival in early June, has been canceled, as has the Madison Regatta and its Roostertail Music Festival. This would have been the 50th year for the Regatta, which also was set to host the famed Gold Cup race for the second consecutive year. Madison Wine, Stein & Barrel, held in June as fundraiser for the Riverfront Development Committee, is gone. And the Rockin’ On the River fundraiser for the Madison Salvation Army over Labor Day Weekend has been canceled.
In Kentucky, Oldham County Day, held in mid-July, has been canceled. The Oldham County History Center’s annual fundraising “Gala” to honor the J.C. Barnett Champion of History had been initially set for June 19, but it was recently rescheduled for Oct. 2.
All three of Louisville’s major September concert weekends – Hometown Rising, Louder Than Life and Bourbon & Beyond – are off until next year.
At this point, it is becoming easier to list which of the major regional events hasn’t been canceled. That leaves us with the 19th annual Madison Ribberfest. Originally set for Aug. 21-22, Ribberfest has become one of the most popular annual festivals in the area, featuring nationally known blues bands, along with pro and amateur barbecue cooking contests.
But this year will be different. Festival organizers at VisitMadison Inc. in late May announced that they plan to scale back this year’s Ribberfest to a one-day event on Saturday, Aug. 22, and feature local and regional bands. The idea is to protect against the potential cost of having to cancel expensive national acts in the event state guidelines later change that would prohibit the event from being held at all.
Ribberfest boasts the state’s longest-running pro barbecue cooking contest sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society. The society has provided safety guidelines for host communities to follow should they

Thomas

continue to hold their contest. At this writing, the Ribberfest committee is still working on a plan to retain its pro cooking event, tourism officials said. No decision has yet been made about the Backyard Blast amateur cooking contest, which was previously held on Friday night.
“We are saddened that we aren’t having a full festival this year, but our committee is not ready to throw in the towel just yet,” says Katie Burress, VisitMadison’s Ribberfest Event Coordinator. “We will still provide a blues music experience as well as some other components of a typical Ribberfest.”
As a result, organizers plan to reduce the price of admission wristbands and also limit the number sold to about 1,700 in accordance with state safety guidelines. In a normal year, the event would generally attract around 12,000 fans over the two days, according to VisitMadison Inc. Executive Director Tawana Thomas.
“We have studied the footprint of Bicentennial Park, and we have determined that we can accommodate 1,776 people with state mandated safety guidelines in place and practicing six feet social distancing,” Thomas said.
Dave Butler, Ribberfest Committee member since its inception in 2002, said, “We have been really excited about the show we put together for this year. So to say we are disappointed would be an understatement. However, we are already working hard to develop a one-day festival full of great blues music, food and camaraderie. Hopefully, the pandemic will be resolved to the point that we can enjoy the festival and stay safe and healthy.”
As a result of the reduction to a one day event and regional rather than national acts, the price of an admission wristband will be reduced, Thomas said. The new price will be announced in June, along with the date that they will go on sale, she said.
“As tourism director, it is my job to get people to come stay in our hotels, because our office is primarily funded through innkeepers’ taxes. But I also have to protect the safety of our volunteers, who have made what our tourism efforts are today. Many of these folks are in the high risk age group, so we will do everything we can to keep them safe.”
Planning for Madison’s other large festival – the Madison Chautauqua Festival of Art – meanwhile, is still ongoing in hopes that it won’t be canceled. It is set for Sept. 26-27 and typically draws more than 30,000 people to Madison over the weekend, officials estimate. It also has a significant economic impact to the local business community.
A poster reveal is being planned for late June, according to festival coordinator Kara Hinze. “Hopefully, by June we will know what changes we will be making to the festival this year,” she said.

Managing tourism in an unsettled time

Last year, the Jefferson County Board of Tourism decided to create a grant with $100,000 coming due in a Certificate of Deposit. The board created a grant application for anyone to submit ideas and to receive a portion of this money for the project. But when the coronavirus hit this spring, the board in May decided to use the money to help pay for the operating expenses of the tourism office.
Hotels have been hard hit, and innkeepers’ taxes are down 60 percent in the first quarter of 2020, Thomas said. That is a stark change from last year, when Jefferson County, Ind., enjoyed a 30 percent increase in innkeepers’ taxes.
“If the innkeepers tax situation improves in the coming months, the board could always go back and use some of that money for a tourism project,” Thomas said.
She said she has been studying surveys by national tourism associations about projected trends in travel in the wake of the pandemic. The surveys indicate that people still want to travel but not to big cities and not more than two hours’ drive time away from home. “They want to stay a few days and enjoy outdoor activities, such as hiking and bicycling, and also shopping and dining. Madison has all of that with Clifty Falls State Park and Heritage Trail and Hatcher Hill. They also want to visit safe, clean towns as opposed to large, highly populated cities right now because of the pandemic.”
She believes Madison is in a good position to attract these travelers because it is small and strategically located only an hour or two away from several large cities – Louisville, Lexington, Cincinnati and Indianapolis.
“People have cabin fever right now, and they want to travel, the studies say,” she said. So VisitMadison Inc. is planning to launch a marketing campaign to target these travelers who live 50-100 miles away, she said.
Thomas and her staff have been rotating hours in the tourism office, which has been closed since mid-March. But in accordance with state safety guidelines, Thomas plans to re-open the tourism office to visitors on June 15, complete with hand sanitizer, in and out signage and gift shop shelves re-organized to comply with social distancing.
“Nobody could predict to this extent that this would happen again in our lifetime. But we are still here, and we will survive this,” she said.

• Don Ward is the editor, publisher and owner of RoundAbout. Call him at (812) 273-2259 or email him at info@RoundAbout.bz.

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