Tucson’s normally busy events season hit hard by pandemic

TUCSON, Ariz. — The El Tour De Tucson cycling event has ben postponed from November to April. The Fourth Avenue Winter Street Fair, an open-air retail extravaganza, was canceled.

The Tucson Festival of Books will be held virtually next March. And the Tucson Gem, Mineral & Fossil Showcase’s producers are reviewing health safety guidelines to see whether a scaled-back version of their high-profile event can be staged as scheduled for two weeks starting Jan. 30.

All told, fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has dealt a punishing blow to Tucson where dozens of winter and spring events normally attract crowds big and small.

“It’s crushing to watch our local businesses, and ours being one of them, being decimated. But in the same token, we’ve never experienced something like this,” said Monique Vallery, creative director for the Fourth Avenue Merchants Association.

Tucson’s streets will be abnormally empty during Tucson’s festival season, typically a six-month stretch that includes festivals, trade shows and cultural gatherings, the Arizona Daily Star reported.

To develop a path for the events to be continued in person, Pima County health officials earlier this month released a special-event permit application to comply with Gov. Doug Ducey’s executive order that limits gatherings of more than 50 people.

“It made sense to develop a form that helped guide people’s thinking, so that they would be able to go through that process to come up with a mitigation plan,” said Dr. Theresa Cullen, the county’s health director.

However, officials acknowledged it’s unrealistic to expect that the festival season, particularly in the spring, will go on as normal.

“Tucson is evolving into a 52-week town, but the heat makes an influx of visitors come in the winter,” said Diane Frisch, the county’s director of attractions and tourism. “That’s the prime season for us. … With COVID, it’s devastating for all of us.”