Steinbach’s annual Summer in the City festival has officially been cancelled.

Chair Audrey Harder says the decision was not an easy one to make but, in light of ongoing COVID-19 concerns, the board felt it was both uncaring to ask struggling businesses for sponsorship and unwise to hold an event for 10,000 plus people.

“The sheer thought of being in a crowd that big right now, for most of us, is a little terrifying,” acknowledges Harder. “We need to make sure that we are keeping our community safe.”

Though making the call to cancel Summer in the City was the hard part, Harder says the challenges are far from over. Throughout the course of the next several weeks, the board will be doing what they can to notify vendors, pull out of equipment rentals, and suspend performances, all the while trying to reclaim as much money as possible. When everything settles, Harder is well aware that some outlying expenses will remain. She says the board is going to have to rely on donor generosity to cover those non-refundable purchases.

Still, Harder notes, there is some good to consider. Perhaps the biggest surprise for the board was the kindly response from their headlining musical act.

“The Hunter Brothers, being Canadian and as wonderful as they are, have offered to come back next year and have the same performance without increasing their costs at all!"

When the board first announced that the popular country band would be headlining ticket sales soared. Harder is glad that the local fan base will yet get their highly-anticipated concert.

As unfortunate as the cancellation is, Harder says it allows the board to put two full years of planning into one single event. “This year we were already trying to get bigger and better and now next year we are already that much further ahead! We’re are going to come back with a BANG next year,” she says. “So watch out!”