MAPLE FESTIVAL UPDATE
Good afternoon Hebron Maple Festival Vendors and Guests!
It is with a very sad heart that we are announcing that we will NOT be able to host the 2021 Hebron Maple Festival this year. The planning committee, with the Town of Hebron, worked hard at trying to find reasonable solutions to be able to hold this amazing event and were not able to do so with all of the required COVID precautions and limitations. With a crowd of 8000 or more people, it would be impossible for us to maintain safe distances, control crowd numbers, and provide for appropriate cleaning procedures where needed. But most importantly, we felt that the event would not be feasible for many of our most important vendors, the businesses and organizations that are within Hebron, have buildings where they host events and depend on this event for fundraising. To hold an outdoor event on their doorsteps with them being unable to participate in a committed manner would not have been within the scope of our mission.
We have not abandoned the event. Our hope is that with the vaccine and a recovering economy, we will be able to successfully produce the event in March of 2022. We will still honor some form of accommodation for 2020 vendors that paid for their booths and then were told we had to cancel the event only days before it started because of the Governor’s Executive Order. You are all on our minds as we go into yet another maple season in lockdown. Our hope is that you are healthy, happy and staying as positive as possible, as well as finding creative ways to keep your businesses open. Our apologies for a somewhat late announcement but we were hoping that things would improve more quickly with the distribution of the vaccine. We will keep in contact with all of you. Please feel free to pass this information along to other potential vendors and guests. Please stay safe until we see you again next winter/spring. ?
Diane Nadeau, President & CEO
Windham Region Chamber of Commerce
1010 Main Street, Willimantic, CT 06226