Now that April Fools Day is over it is time to return to some sad, sad news regarding COVID-19 and precautions that must be taken to fight it in which will effect on our small local businesses, communities, and events.

In the past week or so there have been some more major cancellations for annual large events that usually take place downtown. These are events we look forward to as a downtown business, and it certainly won’t help us that they are cancelled, even if our store is able to be open at any point in May.

One of the first annual events that happens downtown is the Fat Ass 5k, which was scheduled to take place this year on May 9th. Although we hadn’t announced anything, we were originally planning on bands or hip hop acts performing outside of our space for this event. The event has not officially cancelled just yet, but this is what their facebook page recently stated:

The Fat Ass 5k & Street Party for Charity Committee is in the process of evaluating all our options regarding the 2020 event.

We will make a definitive announcement regarding the 2020 Fat Ass 5k & Street Party for Charity, and refund options (if applicable) by April 15th. We appreciate your Fat Ass patience!

Other than Fat Ass 5k, the biggest weekend for downtown Springfield in May has been Springfield Pride Fest and The Old Capitol Art Fair, which take place on the same weekend and were scheduled for May 16th. You can see the statement from The Phoenix Center regarding Pride Fest above.

The Old Capitol Art Fair released a statement on Monday:

Due to the uncertainty of the COVID 19 (coronavirus) pandemic and President Trump extending social distancing recommendations until April 30th the Springfield Old Capitol Art Fair for 2020 has been cancelled.

The committee thanks our Student Art contest winners for their submissions this year. All winners will be contacted directly, and prizes will still be awarded. Artists will receive their booth refunds within the next 3 weeks.

Thank you to our artists, vendors, sponsors and patrons. We look forward to seeing you next year. Please mark your calendars for May 15th & 16th, 2021

We are dreading to think about what other spring and summer and future events will be effected by precautions that must be made in fighting COVID-19. We’ll continue to try and send out updates on downtown, you can also follow the Downtown Springfield Inc. facebook page.

All shows that we previously had scheduled at Dumb Records are cancelled until we are at a point where we can announce our return.