For the second year in a row, the Old Shawnee Days festival has been canceled due to the health risks of gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The annual festival in Shawnee was scheduled for June 3-6 this year.
The Old Shawnee Days Society, the city of Shawnee and local public health officials recently made the “difficult decision” and announced it in a statement on the festival’s website.
The 54th version of the summer event was canceled last year in early April, soon after the novel coronavirus began spreading in the Kansas City metro.
“Our top priority remains the health and safety of our committee members, volunteers, vendors, entertainers and of course our community,” the statement read.
The Old Shawnee Days Society is still planning to offer the annual Becky Nicks Jr. Pioneer Scholarship. The committee will accept scholarship applications online at oldshawneedays.org until Saturday, May 1.
“COVID-19 has turned our community upside down for over a year,” the statement read. “We have all been looking forward to the return of normalcy and our beloved Old Shawnee Days. We will now anxiously await Old Shawnee Days 2022, June 2-5. Until then, stay safe and continue to take care of one another.”
