This year’s Great Pumpkin Festival, which typically is held the Saturday before Halloween in downtown Festus and Crystal City, has been canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Chris Hagan, the main organizer.
The annual event usually draws hundreds of trick-or-treaters to Festus Main Street and Crystal City Bailey Road, where merchants distribute candy to children. A costume contest also is held.
Hagan said it’s unheard of to cancel the event.
“It has never been canceled for snow or rain,” he said. “We had it even after the Main Street Cafe building burned down on a Friday (Oct. 26, 2007). There were still firetrucks on the street when we were giving out candy.”
The Historic Tanglefoot Association has been a sponsor of the annual festival, and numerous businesses participate each year, Hagan noted.
“Obviously, the COVID virus and everything else has played a big role in canceling,” he said.
Hagan said many businesses already are reeling due to the pandemic and can’t afford to spend hundreds of dollars on candy.
And, under the current conditions, he did not apply for a grant from the Festus Tourism Commission to help fund the event.
“The last three years, Tourism has given us money,” Hagan said. “The money I got was for advertising and hiring actors in costume to hand out candy.”
Hagan said he plans to apply for a grant for the 2021 Great Pumpkin Festival.
He said he feels badly for the kids who will miss out this year, when they likely would have collected even more treats than usual because of the upcoming presidential election.
“In a presidential election year, we’ll get 30 or so politicians giving out candy,” Hagan said.
Hagan, whose family has owned the Festus Metro Hallmark Gold Crown Store (formerly Metro Office Supply Hallmark) since 1980, said he has run the Great Pumpkin Festival since the late 1980s and knows the event goes back even before that, perhaps much further.
