Artsplosure will be postponed, Got to Be NC Festival is canceled
Artsplosure, one of downtown Raleigh’s major spring events, is moving to the fall.
Organizers announced Thursday that the multi-day arts festival is now going to be held Oct. 10-11.
It would have taken over downtown streets May 16-17 and was expected to return to Moore Square. It was held around Moore Square for two decades before construction relocated the festival to Fayetteville Street.
“Since the advent of this national emergency, the Artsplosure professional staff has been in frequent communications with the hundreds of performing and visual arts who were originally selected to be a part of Artsplosure in May, and I can report that the majority of them are available and excited to be a part of the return of NC’s premier art festival,” said Michael Lowder, Artsplosure executive director, in a news release.
It’s not the only event to face disruptions. After a flurry of major event cancellations last month, organizers are looking ahead to late spring and early summer to make decisions about those events.
Many of those events also are getting canceled as officials decide what a “new normal,” and large gatherings, might look after the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Got to Be NC Festival was scheduled for May 15-17 at the N.C. State Fairgrounds in Raleigh. It’s the first time it hasn’t been held since it was created in 2008.
The festival celebrates North Carolina agriculture and products.
The Rex Hospital Open golf tournament, UNC Rex Healthcare’s largest fundraiser of the year, also was canceled.
The Rex Hospital Open had been scheduled for May 28-31 at The Country Club at Wakefield Plantation.
The Dreamville Festival, which would have been held at Dix Park earlier this month, now will be held Aug. 29.