Baltimore Book Festival, Light City Canceled For 2020

BALTIMORE, MD — The Baltimore Book Festival and Light City will be on hiatus as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, organizers said Tuesday. The two events were combined in 2019. Now they will be split up again, and Light City will go dark until 2022.

“Sadly, we have had to postpone our large-scale public events at least through the end of 2020,” Donna Drew Sawyer, CEO of Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts, said in a statement, citing the "current health crisis."

To uphold Baltimore's cultural vibrancy during the pandemic, the agency has created a series of "Art in August" exhibitions as well as a virtual Artists' Market from 4 p.m. Friday, Aug. 21, to 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30, featuring vendors who would have displayed their wares at Artscape, the July arts festival that was canceled due to the pandemic.

Moving forward, the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts pledged to develop virtual programs for the Free Fall Baltimore and the Open Studio Tour events in October.

"While large-scale events are no longer possible in 2020, BOPA will continue to amplify the work done as Baltimore City’s Arts Council by developing virtual options," according to a statement from the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts (BOPA).

Officials said the Baltimore Book Festival has been postponed until 2021, while Light City will return to dazzle spectators in 2022.

"Currently, a decision has not been finalized for Baltimore’s New Year’s Eve Spectacular," BOPA said in a statement Tuesday.

Mayor Bernard C. "Jack" Young has ordered outdoor gatherings in Baltimore capped at 25 people during phase two of reopening.