Mayfest in July: Chamber reschedules annual event

For the first time in 35 years, Perryville’s annual Mayfest will be postponed.
The Perryville Chamber of Commerce, which puts on the annual springtime celebration and street fair, announced Friday that, because of concerns over COVID-19 and public health, the annual event would be moved to July.
According to Chamber director Jackie Wengert, the decision hinged on the fact that the original dates, May 8-9, would have fallen inside the eight-week window recently suggested as a benchmark for large public gatherings.
“So we had to reschedule and we came up with the dates of July 10-11,” Wengert said. “We are still working on contacting all of our vendors and anybody, actually, that’s connected with Mayfest — you’re talking 200-300 people between our volunteers, our vendors, our event coordinators. We’ve spent the biggest part of the day calling and emailing.”
The theme for this year’s event, as announced in November, will be “A Salute to our Hometown Heroes.” In honor of this theme, Mayfest activities will center on veterans, doctors, nurses, EMTs, firefighters, police officers, and all others who serve the community in safety and health.
In addition, the Chamber has joined with the City of Perryville to display special banners spotlighting community members who are actively serving in the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard.

Wengert said the extended timeframe should also serve the community as it deals with the pandemic response.
“We’re hoping that after those two extra months, by then we’ll be okay,” Wengert said. “We’ve had to cancel our April meeting, ribbon cuttings and things like that. We’re going to combine our April meeting with our October meeting.”
Nevertheless, Wengert pointed out that the change is definitely unusual.
“You know how they have Christmas in July? We’re having Mayfest in July,” Wengert said. “This is a one-time thing, as far as we know. We’ve never had to reschedule before. In 35 years, it’s never been canceled and it’s never been rescheduled.”
Wengert said she hopes everyone accepts the change.
“We are just hoping everybody understands and we’re really hoping our volunteers will be able to help us out that weekend,” Wengert said. “We have over 200 volunteers and it’s imperative that our volunteers continue to help us. Our sponsors have been awesome too, so that’s good.”