Carolina Renaissance Festival canceled over coronavirus concerns. ‘We will be back.’
The annual Carolina Renaissance Festival will not return this fall due to coronavirus concerns, according to a statement from the festival Monday. It’s the latest event to be called off in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The festival, one of the largest outdoor Renaissance themed events in the nation, was established in 1994 and is just north of Charlotte in Huntersville off Poplar Tent Road.
Festival Producer Jeffrey Siegel said in a statement that the decision was made for the safety of guests and participants.
“At the heart of the Renaissance Festival is a cornucopia of socially interactive experiences that is hard to compromise with the necessities of social distancing,” he said.
Average attendance for the festival usually exceeds 200,000, said Matt Siegel, the festival’s director of marketing and entertainment.
The Carolina Renaissance Festival will be dealing with a significant negative financial impact, he said, but declined to cite specific figures.
He said while the Carolina Renaissance Festival won’t be putting on a virtual event in the fall, many of the festival’s traveling artists are putting their own work online. The festival is sharing their work through social media such as Facebook and Twitter to give them more exposure during tough financial times for artists.
“Our industry was the first to be shut down, and we’re likely the last to reopen,” Matt Siegel said.
Highlights of the annual festival include an arts and crafts marketplace, jousting knights, falconry, games, music, comedy and food, most notably giant turkey legs.
RenFest is set to return Saturdays and Sundays from Oct. 2 through Nov. 21, 2021. Matt Siegel said the festival is prepared to operate under new public health guidelines if necessary.
“We will be back,” Jeffrey Siegel added. “The Festival village gates will open again. Our patrons and participants are counting on it.”
This story was originally published July 6, 2020 at 9:51 AM.
