For the vantage point of the last week of 2020, what’s 2021 looking like?
Most of us will be glad to see this year go — and glad we survived. But hold on: we need you to survive a little longer. The extra couple of months are snowy and cold so it’s a good time to stay home, read some good books, learn a new skill, call some old friends you haven’t talked to in a while or just chill. Spring is coming. And take care of yourself, wear your mask social distance and don’t hang out in crowds — that can wait.
Normally we start compiled our annual festivals calendar right after Christmas when events start announcing their dates. We publish our first version some time in late March or early April. This past year, just as we were ready to go, events started to fall out or get postponed until eventually, virtually everything was gone. We’re hoping that won’t be the case this year, but look for many changes in the usual schedule for the first half of the year.
We don’t know exactly when things will get back to “normal,” whatever that will look like, but despite the hopeful news of a vaccine, it won’t be happening in the first few months of 2021. We do know that many arts organizations have switched their entire 2020-2021 seasons to all-virtual.
We’ve already gotten news of festival and event cancellations for early 2021. Brite Winter won’t be happening in February, at least not in its usual form with the Flats West Bank packed with visitors enjoying bands, art installations, bonfires, activities and more. They’ve said there will be some kind of content — probably online — but we don’t know what it is yet.
As for the other winter festival, Cleveland Kurentovanje (which last year took place on the same February day as Brite Winter), they’ve announced, “We’re going global.”
They tell us, “In light of COVID-19, our volunteer planning committee is excited to bring the 2021 Cleveland Kurentovanje festival directly to your home. We have lots of fun activities coming your way, so we hope you’ll spend your week with us. Our mission is to bring Slovenian culture and the Kurentovanje spirit to festival goers — and now we can share it with people all over the world.”
In fact, shapeshifting is what a lot of events in the first half of 2021 are doing. The Cleveland International Film Festival April 7-20 will be all online this year. And things have changed as far out as June where the Valley Art Center has announced that its annual June Art by the Falls art fest, in its 37th year, won’t be held in the same format: instead of one outdoor weekend, it will be two five-week shows in its gallery, featuring the arts accepted for last year’s Art by the Falls, which was cancelled.
Pretty much everything else after March seems to be in a holding pattern, waiting to see what the spring — and the vaccine — bring. Dyngus Day, which was all online this past year instead of the usual revel at Gordon Square, is almost a month later this year — May 3 instead of April 13. The rest of the festival calendar doesn’t ramp up until late April and early May with such events as the Geauga Maple Syrup Festival and Station Hope in Ohio City and the schedule hitting full stride in May. What will be taking place then? It’s too early to tell. Keep your fingers crossed. We all need a dose of hope right now.