LAC LA BICHE - The annual Festival of Trees weekend is the latest victim of the COVID-19 event closures.
The Christmas-themed event that has taken over Lac La Biche’s Bold Center with decorative and festive displays has been cancelled due to pandemic protocols and health concerns.
Organized by a volunteer crew, the event has raised tens of thousands of dollars for local charities and organizations in its short history. The keystone event of the festival weekend, a tree raffle that sees Christmas trees decorated with gifts and donated by area businesses, has been a sell-out success for the past four years, raising the majority of the weekend’s charity funds.
Last year’s Festival of Trees weekend raised more than $40,000 that was divvied up between a dozen local charities.
It was a tough decision to cancel the weekend, normally slated for the end of November, says one of the event’s founders Pat Boon-Anderson, but after closely studying national and provincial health guidelines regarding the coronavirus pandemic, their hand was forced.
“We read the document about what the Festival needed to do to put on an event and decided it was just too difficult to run the festival as we knew it to be,” said Boon-Anderson, explaining that Alberta Health Services still has not given the green light for not-for-profit groups to hold meeting in person — so an event hosted by a not-for-profit group that has drawn in excess of 5,000 visitors over a weekend was not going to work.
With that many people expected for events that in the past shave featured children’s inflatable play areas, arts and crafts tables, pictures with Santa, school choirs and bake sales, Boon-Anderson said it just wasn’t going to work.
“Social distancing and sanitizing does not work for many of the activities. The kids are not even allowed to sing yet,” she said.
Although disappointed that many local charities and groups won’t see funds donated from the event, organizers say they do have an early Christmas present for one local charity.
“We took a look at our finances now that we were not putting on the event, and donated $6,000 to Kids are Worth It,” said Boon-Anderson, noting that the in-school breakfast and lunch program was struggling this year to find support due to pandemic conditions. “The program was very worried how they were going to be able to feed the kids this year, so the festival committee was able to help out.”
While COVID has chopped the festive tree event this year, organizers say they plan to branch out and grow for next year.
“We will resume in 2021 and are looking forward to having an even better festival for our community to enjoy and benefit from,” she said.
Light Up parade and tree
The local group organizing the annual downtown Christmas parade in Lac La Biche that features the lighting of a large Christmas tree is also considering whether or not that event will be held this year — or what COVID constraints will make the event look like. The Light Up the Night event has been an annual downtown business promotion that has ties into the Festival of Trees event and has been held around the same weekend.
The annual parade has featured upwards of three dozen decorated floats in recent years. The event also welcomes the arrival of Santa and presents the community’s junior citizen of the year.
Organizers have been trying to get details on parade planning from provincial health officials and information on socially-distanced outdoor events. Organizers of the Light Up the Night couldn’t be reached for comment on any recent details by the print edition story’s deadline.
