Gig Harbor Arts Festival is latest pandemic victim; weekend event has been canceled
The Gig Harbor Summer Art Festival, which had been set to take place on July 18 and 19, has been canceled over health concerns due to COVID-19. The cancellation comes against the backdrop of cases on the rise in Gig Harbor and across the state.
The event is put on every year by the Peninsula Art League (PAL) which on their website says “proceeds from the Art Festival provide art scholarships for local students and PAL members.”
Charlee Glock-Jackson, Publicity Chair for PAL, spoke in a phone interview about how the primary loss was an emotional one.
“The art league does have a comfortable cushion financially so it’s not as if not having this festival is going to be their demise,” Glock-Jackson said. “The big hurt is an emotional one because we really value people’s response to the festival and we know how important any kind of art is to people’s psyche and their soul.”
In a statement posted on the event page, there was a promise to “remain committed to refunded all paid booth fees” but that “application fees cannot be refunded.”
Glock-Jackson said the application fees were about “10 or 20 dollars.” The booth fees are listed as S235 for a single booth, $470 for a double booth, $285 for a single corner booth, and $520 for a double booth with one corner.
The average attendance according to Glock-Jackson was 125 artists, which also included musicians and writers. The event statement did say that artists who were invited to this year’s festival would “be able to apply to the 2020 festival without paying a new application fee.”
As for whether the event could have gone virtual, Glock-Jackson said that wasn’t feasible. “It would’ve taken a whole lot of time and a whole lot of coordination and a big learning curve for us too,” Glock-Jackson said. “We didn’t consider that.”
This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 12:46 PM.
