CANCELED POSTPONED

Frisco Festival Will Be Canceled

It was 139 years ago that the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway rolled into Rogers and the community was incorporated.

For more than 30 of the most recent years, the annual fall Frisco Festival has recalled that history with food, music and, last year, an exhibit of model trains at the Rogers Historical Museum.

On June 9, the 2020 Frisco Festival was called off by Downtown Rogers, a division of the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce.

“In the spirit of doing the right thing and with an abundance of caution around public health concerns for spread of the coronavirus, we have canceled this year’s event,” Shey Bland, executive director of Downtown Rogers, said in a news release.

“We will be gathering community feedback and input through some surveys to be released in coming weeks to help with the development of our annual events and new events going forward,” Bland added by email. “In addition, we have been working with the city’s new arts & culture coordinator, Anna Watson, on efforts for the city’s arts and culture strategic plan. Stay tuned as we will have more concrete plans and information to share soon.”

“Like so many things in our community and world, things change,” said Ed McClure, whose law office is in downtown Rogers and who is also artistic director for Arkansas Public Theatre at the Victory. “Losing Frisco Festival this year is epic historically. The festival has traditionally created a positive energy in our historic district that will be missed.”

UFO Conference Moves To 2021

The 33rd annual Ozark Mountain UFO Conference, which had been rescheduled from April to July due to covid-19 concerns, has now been postponed until April 2021, says spokeswoman Darlene Parsons.

“We feel this is for the best interest for everyone involved,” Parsons says via email. “If you already have tickets, they will automatically be transferred to next year’s conference April 9-11, 2021. If you wish to get a refund for your tickets, please contact Brandy by email at brandy@ozarkmt.com.

“If you currently are a vendor and have a table, it will be transferred to next year’s conference. If you are unable to attend, please email Brandy brandy@ozarkmt.com so I can get a refund issued to you.”

Parsons reminds participants to separately contact the hotels to cancel or change reservations.

Scheduled speakers for 2021 include radio host George Noory; author Terry Lovelace; Sasquatch researcher Scott Nelson; and remote viewer PrinCess Jeanee.

More information on the Ozark Mountain UFO Conference is available at www.ozarkufoconference.com.

Cane Hill Fest Nixed

The 34th annual Cane Hill Harvest Festival scheduled for Sept. 19-20 has been canceled due to concerns about the covid-19 virus.

Festival committee members voted on June 4 to cancel plans for the 2020 festival, according to Jim Lewis, festival committee chairman. The festival features free outdoor concerts on both Saturday and Sunday and the popular all-you-can eat country breakfast both days. The event also includes arts and crafts, an antique tractor show, living history presentations, concessions and demonstrations of locals making sorghum molasses, hominy, lye soap and more.

Committee members were concerned about the safety of visitors and volunteers and reducing the possible spread of the virus, Lewis said. They were also concerned that following the covid-19 guidelines for food service and social distancing might be difficult or impossible. Organizers plan to resume the festival next year, he said.

Sorghum has been planted to make the molasses that would have been sold at this year’s festival. Lewis said volunteers will harvest the sorghum and make molasses sometime this fall, just not during the festival as a demonstration.

The festival is held on the campus of the renovated Historic Cane Hill College, which is located just west of Arkansas 45 about four miles south of U.S. 62 between Prairie Grove and Lincoln.