Valdese, NC – The Town of Valdese has made the decision to cancel all concerts scheduled for June and July as part of the Family Friday Night Summer Concert Series. The Family Friday Nights Summer Concert Series was scheduled to kick-off on June 5th after postponements were made for May events. Unfortunately, this also includes the cancellation of the Annual Independence Day Celebration and fireworks display planned for July 3rd, 2020. Great consideration was taken in making this decision, however, the health of our community and citizens is most important during this difficult time.

With recent announcements from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, and Governor Roy Cooper, we believe it is in the best interest of our staff, our artists, our citizens, and our visitors to suspend all summer concerts until August. We hope to be able to rejoin and celebrate as a community in August for the Waldensian Festival scheduled for August 7 & 8th, 2020.

With the expansion of the Stay at Home order, and the introduction of the Phases to Re-open plan, we know that mass gatherings will not be reality for our state for quite some time. With the concerts being outdoors, and crowds being large, there is no way to safely regulate social distancing during these specific events. While we plan to reconvene in August, please note that this situation is fluid and we will continue to consult the proper officials to make decisions based on what is best for the health and safety of our community.

We truly believe that no event is worth putting the health of our community at risk. Right now, our focus is keeping our community safe, and that cannot be done without making sacrifices. “The summer concerts are truly the biggest highlight of our year and I regret sharing the cancellation decision with our community and event attendees,” states Morrissa Angi Community Affairs Director for the Town of Valdese. “Our hope is for our community to stay healthy and come out for a tremendous celebration when this difficult time passes,” Angi continued.

We want to thank you all for your continuous support of the Town of Valdese. We have received an outpour of encouragement during these difficult times. Our community’s unbreakable positive attitude has given us hope in this dark time, and we are forever grateful for that. We encourage our community to support our local businesses now more than ever – buy gift cards for future use, shop online and order food from our restaurants to go. “We have an amazing variety of businesses downtown and we sympathize with the hardships they are enduring through the COVID-19 pandemic. Take the time while you are home to visit their businesses online and if you can’t support them financial with a purchase, share their specials or site with your friends and family,” Angi stated.

Stay informed with up to date information from the Town of Valdese, including COVID-19 resources, at townofvaldese.com.