Hudson Valley Garlic Festival is Officially Canceled for 2020

So the word was getting out yesterday but today they confirmed it on the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival Facebook page, The 2020 Hudson Valley Garlic Festival will not be happening. I had hoped that garlic could ward of COVID-19 but it seems it can not, so like all the other fairs and festival so far in 2020 the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival is going up on the canceled board and we are left waiting until 2021.

This annual event pulls garlic lovers in from all over the country. The Kiwanis Club of Saugerties had hoped that they could pull it off. On June 19th they posted on Facebook that they hoped to have the festival as scheduled but unfortunately yesterday they sent down the official word that it would be cancelled.

Chairperson Richard Kappler sent out a press release yesterday making the announcement which included this statement:

"As a result of the current COVID-19 Pandemic, the Kiwanis Club of Saugerties has made the extremely difficult decision to cancel the 2020 Hudson Valley Garlic Festival. The safety of our community, the festival's visitors, and its vendors is the number one priority of our club. The current trend of rising infection rates whenever there are large public gatherings and the only safe way to avoid spikes being to maintain social distancing, made planning for a safe festival in 2020 impossible for our group of volunteers. We are heartbroken that our garlic friends and vendors will not be able to celebrate the harvest of the stinking rose with us this Fall as they have since 1992,but be assured that we will be back in 2021. The festival dates in 2021 will be October 2nd and 3rd."

So like all the other events we are missing this year we will add the 2021 Festival to our 2021 calendar and make a plan to be there enjoying all things garlic on October 2nd and 3rd of next year.