Lakewood Arts Fest Canceled Due To COVID-19

The 2020 Lakewood Arts Festival, a hugely popular annual event, has been canceled due to COVID-19.

Festival organizers coordinated with state and local officials to determine if the festival, originally scheduled for Aug. 1, was in line with public safety guidelines and determined that holding the event would present a safety risk.

The Lakewood Arts Festival Board will continue to grant scholarships, and has already awarded one $4,000 scholarship. Two additional $1,000 scholarships are still available.

“The Trustees of the Lakewood Arts Festival Board did not make this decision lightly, but out of thoughtful care and concern,” the Board of Trustees said in a statement. “An event as large as the Lakewood Arts Festival would present a safety risk to the artists, volunteers, patrons and attendees that are the fabric of the show.”

Artists’ work, social media and contact information will instead be displayed on the festival’s website.

“The Lakewood Arts Festival Board is incredibly proud of the show that we had planned to present this season,” the statement said. “The Lakewood Arts Festival Board encourages you to take this opportunity to support the artists as you do year after year at the Festival.”

Many local artists have already shifted focus from in-person events to their online presence, but festivals still serve as an important financial and networking opportunity, according to Lakewood-based ceramics artist Lauren Herzak-Bauman.

“Maybe someone doesn’t buy the first time they meet us,” Herzak-Bauman said. “But then they might buy presents during the holiday season or they might wait until they’re redoing their home to buy some new artwork.”

Herzak-Bauman works with Lakewood’s Screw Factory to show and sell her work. The artists’ collective there has already shifted to primarily online sales during the pandemic, she said.

“They take a lot of work, to pivot every single thing to online, but we’re doing it to keep people safe,” Herzak-Bauman said.

The Lakewood Arts Festival was going to be her only local event this year, Herzak-Bauman said.

“Even though it’s sad to cancel it, it’s absolutely understandable,” Herzak-Bauman said. “I’ll just miss seeing everyone. It’s my favorite show to do.”

Lakewood is not the only city making cancellations: Rocky River announced this week it would also cancel its Fall Arts Festival, slated for September. Artists are wondering whether those cancellations will continue into the holiday shopping season.

“Forty percent of our year happens in that last quarter, so I think those are probably the shows I’m most concerned about,” said mixed-media artist and Lakewood resident Lexi DeBaltzo.

DeBaltzo also decided to focus on her Etsy store over festivals this year, and has seen a spike of about 20 percent in her online sales in recent weeks.

“I don’t do a ton of shows, but I do significant shows,” she said. “And I’m finding this is a good opportunity to focus on my social media presence.”

Even before the Lakewood Arts Fest canceled, DeBaltzo said, she wasn’t sure how comfortable she would be attending.

“I’m going to miss it because it’s a great event,” DeBaltzo said. “But I did have my own personal doubts whether we would get the traffic we have in the past and whether, with that many people there, it was possible to maintain some kind of semblance of social distancing.”

The next Lakewood Arts Fest is scheduled for Aug. 7, 2021.