LINDALE, Texas — The cancellation of the Piney Woods Wine Festival and CountryFest in Lindale is having a major impact on local businesses.
"It's definitely a bummer to have those businesses not be able to flourish, and a lot of people come out to enjoy those things," Monica Combs, spokesperson for the Cannery said.
"We're talking about an economic impact in this community of six figures for those two events being canceled," Shelbie Glover, President and CEO of the Lindale Chamber of Commerce, said. "Because not only is it the festival and the dollars that are spent at the festival, but it's also the people, the tourism coming into our community during those two periods of time."
Glover says following the cancellation of CountryFest, several business owners contacted the chamber asking for them to intervene.
"Once we canceled, we were bombarded with people calling and emailing and saying that they needed the festival for the income and that they were so disappointed, as vendors, as small business owners, as sponsors," Glover said. "So we went back to the drawing board and decided okay, we will do a vendor focused festival on October the 10."
That vendor focused festival is the new "Launch Local Festival." It will include many of the favorites from CountryFest including a car show, vendors, food, performances on the cannery stage, plus several of the wineries that were scheduled to be at the wine festival.
"The wineries contacted us and said they wanted to be involved," Glover said. "So we have 13 wineries that are going to come and do wine tastings all day and again, their rooms have been closed for business as part of the closures so they've been affected as well."
Social distancing will be in effect, and Glover says the event will adhere to all of the state and local COVID-19 recommendations.
"We will stay completely in the governor's ordinances, completely in Smith county ordinances," Glover said. "We will have vendors and food and live music and we will have those spots out 10 feet apart. So for their safety, we're encouraging people to wear masks, we're encouraging people to know that it is still an inherent risk of COVID."
The festival will be held on Saturday, October 10 from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. and is free to attend. For more information check out the Lindale Chamber of Commerce website.