‘Right thing to do’: Months away, beloved Boise festival cancels — 1st time in 40 years

Take off your tie-dye. Put down your hula hoop. It’s that kind of summer.

Organizers of the the annual Hyde Park Street Fair have decided to cancel the festival because of the coronavirus.

Board members of the North End Neighborhood Association voted to pull the plug Tuesday because of increasing COVID-19 concerns, according to a press release.

The fair was scheduled to take place Sept. 18-20 at Camel’s Back Park, where it typically draws as many as 30,000 people, according to estimates. “This is the first time in 40 years that the fair will not be held in Boise’s historic North End neighborhood,” the press release said.

“Ultimately, it’s the right thing to do,” NENA president Mark Baltes said in a statement. “The board felt like we had a responsibility to safeguard the health of our neighbors, loyal fairgoers, community and vendor participants.”

Here’s more from the press release:

“Boise would need to be in Stage 4 of the pandemic response plan for the fair to occur, and with the recent move back to Stage 3 it is unclear when that might happen.

The Fair accounts for approximately 95 percent of NENA’s annual income, allowing the neighborhood to take an active role in supporting local schools, residents, and community organizations with donations each year. Recent recipients of NENA funding include Washington, Lowell, Longfellow, North Junior and Boise High schools, Neighborhood Improvement Project grants, and via the NENA Aid Program, donations totaling more than $20,000 to local organizations supporting Boiseans impacted by COVID-19 including Jesse Tree, Interfaith Sanctuary, Faces of Hope, City of Good, Life’s Kitchen and City Light.

Application fees will be returned to vendors who have applied to participate in the 2020 Fair, and notification of cancellation was sent to vendors today via event coordinators at Gruntwerks, Inc.

NENA looks forward to gathering in Camel’s Back Park Sept. 17-19, 2021, to resume the fair tradition. In the meantime, NENA remains committed to supporting our community and is working on a pivot plan to include T-shirts and other memorabilia which will be available for purchase on the NENA website: www.northendboise.org. Other partnerships and events will be announced in the coming weeks.”

This story was originally published July 1, 2020 at 5:49 PM.