News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The 32nd Upper Cumberland Quilt Festival has been cancelled.
Festival Coordinator John Allen said cancelling Tennessee’s largest and longest running quilt festival was not easy and required multiple board meetings.
“We did not approach it lightly,” Allen said. “Extensive discussions and a great deal of reflection. It was not a unanimous situation until we got to yesterday’s meeting.”
Allen said health concerns and the increasing amount of Covid cases in Putnam County were the main factors in the decision. Each year, about 1,000 people attend the festival held each September.
“We are not only concerned for the guest coming to the festival, but our volunteers were uneasy with being out in the public in September,” Allen said. “As well as the board, several of us on the board are older, and naturally, we are concerned of our own personal health.”
Allen said multiple churches that help host the festival are also not open to public events. The festival is a yearly fundraiser for the Algood Senior Citizen Center and is made up of over 200 quilts for competition with 22 different classes.
The next festival is planned for September 17th through the 18th in 2021.
