Willow Waterhole Conservancy’s annual MusicFest 2020 canceled due to COVID-19 concerns

MusicFest 2020 will not be happening at Willow Waterhole Greenway in 2020.

The board for the Willow Waterhole Greenspace Conservancy voted to not hold the event Oct. 24-25 due to concerns for the health and safety of festivalgoers after being recommended to cancel the event by a large resident-run committee tasked with overseeing the event, said Howard Sacks, who serves the board as events chairman.

The decision to cancel the event happened at the end of August.

“The MusicFest Committee unanimously recommended to the conservancy board that MusicFest be canceled due to COVID-19, and the board agreed, so we will go into 2021 excited and looking forward to delivering a bigger and better MusicFest in April,” Sacks said. “In the end, we just felt that social distancing was going to be very difficult at MusicFest.”

The music festival had already been postponed from its original April 4-5 dates because of COVID-19. For the original event, the conservancy had scheduled 14 professional bands with music and performances, bird art by area schools and students, and on-site food trucks on the 290-acre green space.

Other events utilizing the Willow Waterhole space have also been affected by the pandemic.

Cross country meets, for example, which had been scheduled in August, were canceled, as were upcoming events such as Halloween Trunk or Treat, scheduled for October, and Winter Fun, for December.