INDIA ASSOCIATION of CHARLOTTE  -  Press Release 2-12-2021

Covid has drastically impacted our very way of life. And after the trauma of having to cancel our annual Festival of India 2020, we have started planning for our festival this year. In our frequent interaction with our key partners like BPAC, CRVA etc., about their view of customer sentiment, we all share a sense that visitor confidence continues to improve as vaccine penetration grows within our community. But no credible data to help predict how folks even after having received the Covid vaccines, would psychologically feel about attending crowded events in the Fall time frame. Our challenge is to predict visitor sentiment about events in closed indoor settings, as against experiences in a totally open outdoors setting.

We continue to work with Belk Theater as well as other open venues like County Parks, but they are also struggling with making firm commitments right now, for the September/October time frame.

Our intent is to drive a festival this year, even though the venue, duration and timing may need to be different from what we have done in the past.

Our priority in doing the event is to focus on the health and safety of our visitors, our performers, our volunteers and all other stakeholders.

We hope to make a decision as soon as our venue partners respond with some firm commitments, and will update this posting as things develop. This is a plea to please check back here frequently for the latest status on Festival of India 2021

We are continuing to struggle with whether the festival venue this year should be indoors or outdoors. Our key challenge remains to gauge visitor sentiment on attending crowded events, even after a significant penetration of Covid vaccine within the community, around the Fall time frame. 

We already have a slot reserved at Belk Theater for the 1st weekend of September, and are also working on a date with the Country Parks Dept., who seem ambivalent about committing anything, that far out. 

We are also seriously exploring another option of offering glimpses of the Festival of India, in collaboration with CCCP (Charlotte City Center Partners), on their Charlotte SHOUT! events platform, scheduled to be held between Sept 17 – Oct 3 at many locations Uptown. 

We are diligently pursuing all these options and eager to update you, as soon as we have a firm commitment and make a final decision. 

Please stay tuned by checking status on the website. Thanks and we remain grateful for the support and patience of all our valued stakeholders.