The question of when the Columbia festivals will return seems to have an answer: May 1.
This is the day the Rosewood Crawfish Festival plans to continue its annual celebration of live music and freshwater crustaceans at the State Fairgrounds, returning after canceling its tour in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
News of Rosewood’s plan to host a festival this spring quickly follows the heels of one of Columbia’s other landmark events, the St. Pat’s party at Five Points, revealing last week that it was canceled for the second year in a row.
Dave Britt, the prolific local promoter who takes the lead in planning the event and hiring artists, said that a few different factors impacted the decision to proceed with the festival, as traditionally happens in early May.
The association received money from the Columbia City Hospitality Tax Fund, and while Britt said he was confident he could have obtained an extension of the use of the funds, it made sense to go ahead and spend them if they could hold the event.
The continued release of the COVID-19 vaccines was the biggest factor in convincing them that they could make the festival work, Britt said, and while they were already planning to move on, Governor Henry McMaster’s move last week to allow meetings of more than 250 people happen without the need for state approval helped cement his resolve.
“We felt that, with the vaccine boost, the right moment, it looked like we would probably be able to do it safely, and we just wanted to take a few people back to Rosewood and get involved in the events again,” explained Britt.
Extensive COVID-19 protocols will be in place, he emphasized.
Masks will be required at all times when there is no active food or drink, and security will enforce this rule.
All food and entertainment will take place outdoors, on the fair grounds, and Britt said they will use the 113 acres of available space to keep things scattered and avoid overcrowding.
How exactly they will prevent the audience from gathering in front of the stage while the acts are playing is among the things they are still trying to find out, but Britt said he will implement measures to prevent this from happening.
Nor is it known what limit the festival will have to attend, but Britt said it is likely to be less than the 10,000 people the event has attracted in the past.
When contacted by the Free Times, Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin echoed the cautionary message he sent during the pandemic.
“Although the state may have relaxed certain restrictions on the capacity of events, the city will continue to do its part in the interest of public health and safety and will require appropriate health and safety protocols,” he replied.
The festival will have one or two stages instead of the typical three or four. The musical acts have not yet been planned, but Britt said he still hopes to get a headline that is “noteworthy and national”, even if it is slightly smaller than normal.
“I’m going to do an active search to see what is available and what matters, to see what kind of price these artists (are asking for)”, he explained. “They may be trying to collect a premium now if they come back and choose very selected dates. Or they can say, ‘We want to get back on the road’, and they are willing to be flexible in their guarantees. But I think they’ll probably be more on the high side. How things fit into the budget and how much the board decides what they want to spend will kind of determine that. “
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Britt said his confidence in being able to make the Crawfish Festival happen safely was also reinforced by his experience of presenting the local music show Colaroo inside the Vista rock club, The Senate, in November.
Although he was smaller, with about 200 people present, he postulated that he learned a lot about how to organize an event responsibly during COVID-19 in the execution of the show, which was done in conjunction with a festival planning class that he taught at the University of South Carolina.
On how he feels about Rosewood being the first Columbia festival to return, Britt said “it is cool to be the first”, but it is also a challenging position.
“I think that to find our way back to the events, someone has to do that and start building the model,” he offered. “With all that said, being the first, I think there is a potential that ticket sales may be lower because people are not ready to come back. On the other hand, they may be over-ready. The population is half divided on that. “
Andy Shain contributed reporting to this article.