It\u2019s Groundhog Day for the Hank Snow Tribute show.<\/p>\n
Organizers of the annual event, normally held each year in April, have announced the 2021 edition has once again, been postponed.<\/p>\n
The 2020 edition would have been the 30th<\/sup> anniversary of the event but was called off because of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n Jessica Smith, co-chair of the organizing committee, says they couldn\u2019t go ahead with the capacity limits required to meet social distancing rules and the uncertainty around the vaccine rollout.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to have as many people as we usually have in an arena,\u201d said Smith. \u201cThere\u2019s just no safe way for us to have that many people together, especially if the vaccine still isn\u2019t done.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith says they\u2019ve already informed the musical acts and suppliers of the postponement.<\/p>\n She says everyone is very understanding and headliner Carroll Baker has already committed to performing next year.<\/p>\n The cancellation is the latest in a string of festival that have announced they will be postponing their events until 2022, including the Apple Blossom Festival in the valley and Liverpool\u2019s Privateer Days<\/a>.<\/p>\n Money raised from the tribute show accounts for the lion\u2019s share of funding to keep the Hank Snow museum operating year-round.<\/p>\n Smith says the museum has been closed through the pandemic but is aiming to reopen in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n Going without their largest source of revenue has meant the museum has had to come up with other ways to raise money.<\/p>\n \u201cWe did a couple of different things. We partnered with South Shore Drive In. We started building the drive-in theatre and we opened in September. We were, kind of, thinking to the future because we knew that COVID wasn\u2019t going to be something that came and went quickly,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n Along with opening their parking lot for the drive-in, the Hank Snow Society also offered barbeques each Wednesday and partnered with QCCR in a 50\/50 draw.<\/p>\n Smith expects to continue those projects and hopes to see the drive-in open as early in the season as possible.<\/p>\n She\u2019s optimistic the 2022 edition of the Hank Snow Tribute Show will go ahead.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously people are disappointed. There\u2019s a lot of people that enjoy going to the tribute every year and seeing old friends and camping and just having a good weekend in general. We\u2019re hoping we can continue on with that and 2022 will be better.\u201d<\/p>\n