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October’s Blue Ridge Folklife Festival Canceled

Blue Ridge Institute and Museum (BRIM) Director Bethany Worley has announced that this year’s 47th Folklife Festival will be canceled.
The annual event is held on the fourth Saturday of every October on the Ferrum College campus, and averages over 12,000 visitors.
The volume of attendees is exactly the reason BRIM officials decided to cancel this year’s festival. “We don’t know under what guidelines our state will be operating with regard to the virus, and our visitors’ safety is of the utmost importance to us,” said Worley.
“We also need to be mindful of visitors’ travel plans,” she added. “Some people visit from a great distance away and need to start making travel arrangements soon. Unfortunately, at this time, we can’t guarantee that the state regulations will be lifted in October, and we don’t want to inconvenience our attendees by them having to cancel their reservations.”
The Folklife Festival is also a lucrative event for local churches, civic groups, and athletic groups, and Worley conveyed the BRIM’s disappointment for having to cancel. However, she said canceling this year’s Folklife Festival will only enhance the next one. “We’re staying positive. We have some extremely exciting and new activities in the works for 2021 for both adults and children,” she said.
Learn more about the Folklife Festival’s events and features here: https://www.ferrum.edu/blue-ridge-folklife-festival/, or on the BRIM’s new mobile app coming May 8!
Although the BRIM galleries and 1800’s heritage farm museum are currently closed to the public at this time, virtual tours remain available here: https://www.ferrum.edu/blueridgeinstitute/onlineexhibits/.

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