The first big casualty of traditional summer activities in Dallas County came Monday morning, as the Adel Partners Chamber of Commerce announced the cancellation of the 2020 Sweet Corn Festival.

Chamber Director Deb Bengtson says the Chamber Board had been in discussions with the City of Adel, the Governor’s Office, and the Dallas County Health Department, and it was with heavy hearts they all agreed to preemptively end the 41st edition of the annual celebration. Bengtson says the primary reason for canceling the festival is uncertainty regarding social distancing requirements related to COVID-19. She points out the organizers need at least two months to properly prepare for the early-August event, and as the month of June began they still had no guarantees for what size of gathering could be allowed by then.

Given that the Sweet Corn Festival routinely brings in over 10,000 people to downtown Adel, the likelihood of the event taking place was a longshot to begin with. However, for Bengtson that doesn’t lessen the sting of having to make the call. “It was probably the toughest decision my Board has had to make. What the bottom line came to was we just felt that this year the Chamber was not going to be able to cover all of the guidelines and to put on a festival that we are very proud of.”

There will still be quarantine-themed Sweet Corn t-shirts for sale online and at the Adel Fareway this summer, and the Sweet Corn 5K run will be held virtually on August 8th. To hear more from Bengtson on the Sweet Corn Festival and the fate of other summer events, listen to today’s Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program on air and at RaccoonValleyRadio.com.