Fine Arts Festival Postponed Due To Rising COVID-19 Cases: Board

WHEATON, IL — The DuPage County Fine Arts Festival will be postponed again this year due to concerns about rising COVID-19 case numbers, the Committee on Fine Arts voted Tuesday. The festival was originally scheduled to take place Sept. 24-26 at the DuPage County Fairgrounds.

While an exact date for the rescheduled festival has not been announced, committee chairwoman Lynn LaPlante said the board hopes to hold the festival in the spring of 2022.

"While I am disappointed that we cannot conduct the festival in September as we had hoped, there is nothing more important than the health and safety of our residents," LaPlante said in a statement. "I know we made the right decision on their behalf."

The DuPage County Health Department classified the area as "high transmission" in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's rating. A spokeswoman from the department said she expects the county to surpass 100,000 total COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic sometime this week.

Karen Ayala, the executive director of the health department, said the postponement was more about protecting vulnerable members of the community and had less to do with overall vaccination rates.

"Although our community vaccination rate is very high, there are many individuals in our community who continue to be at high risk for infection, including children younger than 12 years old who are not eligible to be vaccinated," she said at the committee meeting. "When community transmission of COVID-19 is high, we must prioritize maintaining essential community activities and services including health care and safe in-person learning environments in school for our children."

Glen Ellyn's Festival of the Arts still took place Aug. 28-29.