Organizers Cancel 2020 Penn Fest In Richfield

Press release from the City of Richfield:

July 31, 2020

For the past dozen years, Richfield residents and others from neighboring communities have relished the chance to get together at the city’s seminal fall event: Penn Fest. Unfortunately, due to the public health concerns regarding the novel coronavirus, the 2020 iteration of Penn Fest has been canceled.

“With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, public health officials are advising that outdoor gatherings be capped at 250 people,” explained Recreation Services Director Amy Markle. “Most years, we have 250 people in attendance at Penn Fest in the first 15 minutes, let alone the subsequent five hours, so in the interest of health and safety, we had to cancel the event.”

Open Streets at Penn Fest was created in 2008 when a group of ambitious residents and business owners, known collectively as Penn Central, worked together to promote the Penn Avenue neighborhood. The festival has grown in size every year with more than 8,000 attendees in 2019.

Brainstorming for Penn Fest starts not long after the previous festival has concluded, with planning for the event beginning in earnest during the spring. Organizers held its first planning meeting in March before the public health crisis took hold in Minnesota and have been in a holding pattern ever since.

“At the onset of the coronavirus, no one really knew how long the pandemic would last or the long-term impacts it would have on our daily lives,” said Penn Fest organizer Gordon Hanson. “As organizers we kept in regular contact with our public health, public safety and recreations services officials to determine if there was a path forward for us to host the 2020 event, but as the weeks and months went by the chances were becoming less likely before we ultimately had to cancel the event.”

The cancellation is in-line with other area Open Streets events. Annually, Minneapolis hosts between eight and 10 Open Streets events throughout the city, but have now canceled all of them for 2020.

“Richfield is a close-knit community and it shows during Penn Fest,” remarked Mayor Maria Regan Gonzalez. “The event highlights the best amenities our city has to offer, including the businesses on Penn Avenue. Even though we are not getting together in-person for the festival this year, I strongly encourage residents to stop by those businesses in the coming weeks and show your support for them.”

Hanson and other Penn Fest organizers are not wallowing in the announcement of the festival’s cancellation. They have already turned their attention to 2021, where they hope to have the biggest and best Penn Fest to date.

This press release was produced by the City of Richfield. The views expressed here are the author’s own.