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As bad as 2020 was for cancelling our favorite festivals, it looks like 2021 is trying to repeat. Many area communities are assessing state issued mandates and guidelines for gathering in groups, outdoors and so on. Communities are working hard to host events for their towns because people need these events to happen. The mental toll the last year has taken on people is awful. Depression is on the rise because, by default, humans crave interaction with other humans, and we’ve forgotten how important that aspect is to our survival.

The problem is, planning a town festival takes months and requires a lot of upfront funding to book many of the acts and attractions. With the current limitations in place, many vendors are leery about committing to large scale events, both on a financial and a health level.

Cottage Grove’s Strawberry Fest is normally the third weekend in June starting Thursday through Sunday. For 2021, it was slated to be June 17th – 20th. The center of the activity is Kingston Park. Some of the favorite attractions: Car shows, a carnival with rides, kid’s tractor pull, bean bag tournaments, live entertainment, hot air balloon rides, a parade and of course, fireworks.

Here is the statement issued by the Strawberry Fest Committee regarding the cancellation of this years event.

By now, you may have already heard that the Strawberry Fest committee (made up of volunteers) who put together Cottage Grove’s Annual Strawberry Fest made the difficult decision to cancel the June 2021 event. For months we’ve held out hope that we’d be able to put on a fun and safe event for our entire community, and please know we looked into every angle and possibility under the sun to try and make it work.

The Committee determined that based on the number of guests we’d be able to accommodate under MN State Guidelines, the Fest would not have been financially viable. The social distancing required for our food vendors, bands and the beer garden also made it impossible for us to move forward. Our team was in limbo for months, and we were optimistic at times, but the state guidelines just didn’t move fast enough in a positive direction for us to pull everything together.

We did not take this decision lightly and we realize how disappointing this news is for all our families and friends hoping to get back some normalcy in how we gather as a community. We want to thank our many partners, from volunteer groups and organizations to City Public Works and Public Safety employees, who shared in our whole-hearted attempt to reconvene for Strawberry Fest in 2021. Thank you for your patience and understanding; we sincerely apologize for having to cancel this year’s event!

Newport’s Pioneer Days, normally held in the early part of August, has also been cancelled. At a recent Parks meeting, Mayor Laurie Elliot explained that most vendors would be unavailable this summer due to covid. No further information was available at this time.