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As pandemic cancellations pile up the latest victim of COVID-19 is the Lansing Carnival. Lansing Events Committee (LEC) President Valerie McMillen announced on Facebook Wednesday that the 2020 carnival and parade will not take place.

"The Lansing Events Committee has the unfortunate position of having to announce the cancellation of the Lansing Community Celebration 2020," she wrote. "Phase 4 includes high-risk activities, such as: carnivals, concerts, performing arts, theater arts, water parks and the like, the reason being, they will go over the gathering limit of 50 people."

The carnival would have been held on September 6th and 7th.  DJ Kdawg was booked, and events were to include a Lil Miss & Mr.contest, bands and performances all day, a cake wheel, vendors, fireworks,and the parade on Saturday the 7th.

The Lansing Carnival is the child, in a way of the Lansing Volunteer Fire Department carnival and parade.  A few years after that carnival ended, the Lansing Bicentennial Committee was created to come up with ways to celebrate the Town's 200th anniversary.  One idea was to resurrect the carnival and parade.  It took place September 9th, part of the year-long celebration of Lansing's April 17th birthday.  It looked very much like the former Fire Department Carnival, even taking place behind Central Fire Station,and while fire department volunteers no longer hosted the carnival, they pitched in, cooking and serving food at the food pavilion.

The carnival was a success, and after the Bicentennial the Lansing Events Committee was born, taking over the carnival and sponsoring other local events.  The carnival and parade have been a staple of community events each year since.

But this year Albany's lockdown rules and uncertainty about the immediate future because of the spread of COVID-19 have impacted many organizations' plans for events.  Some have moved to the Internet, but that would be difficult for a community carnival.

"At this point, even if Phase 4 were to completely open in Tompkins County, the LEC will not have ample time to organize the parade, book the acts, prepare the carnival, and have enough membership to make sure the proper PPE were being followed," McMillen said.

McMillen thanked the community for its support, and said the committee plans to bring the carnival back in 2021.


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