COVID-19 canceled many fall fairs and festivals. Here's what that means for WV communities.

Every few years, psychiatrist G.H. Dornblazer leaves Charlotte, North Carolina, in his rearview mirror, taking Interstate 77 all the way into West Virginia.

After hours weaving around and cutting through the Mountain State’s namesakes — large but closely packed mountains blanketed by forests just beginning to show their fall colors — Dornblazer arrives in Elkins, his hometown and the site of the Mountain State Forest Festival.

His grandfather, George Dornblazer, helped start the festival back in 1930. It’s now one of the largest such events in West Virginia, attracting more than 100,000 people to a city of 7,000, and offering more than a week packed with activities like parades, a lumberjack competition, concerts, rides, art exhibits and royal court events.

But Dornblazer and tens of thousands of others didn’t visit this year or last. As the Delta variant sent COVID-19 cases skyrocketing in recent months, Forest Festival organizers canceled the event.

Read more: https://mountainstatespotlight.org/2021/10/15/covid-19-canceled-many-fall-fairs-and-festivals-heres-what-that-means-for-wv-communities/