By Conrad Dudderar
Senior Staff Writer
All Yukon Parks & Recreation’s special events and activities have been canceled or postponed due to COVID-19 and the governor’s emergency order.
This includes the annual Festival of the Child, which had been set Saturday, May 2 at Yukon City Park, 2200 S Holly.
This will mark the first time since the mid-90s that Yukon won’t host this epic celebration of children that draws thousands of attendees. People will have to wait until May 2021 for the 24th annual festival.
Under current health and safety restrictions recommended by the Centers of Disease Control to combat the coronavirus, gatherings of 10 or more people are forbidden.
The City of Yukon’s popular summer concert series at Chisholm Trail Park, 500 W Vandament, was due to start Thursday, June 11 and run through Aug. 6.
“I’m going to talk to the artists and tell them the concerts are on hold; everybody is on hold,” Yukon Parks & Recreation Director Jan Scott said. “I was booking some artists for Chisholm Trail and then they canceled it.”
The annual Chisholm Trail Festival, presented by the Chisholm Trail Historical Society in partnership with the City of Yukon, was June 6 at Mollie Spencer Farm, 1001 S Garth Brooks Blvd.
The 30th anniversary celebration of this western heritage celebration will now have to wait until 2021.
City of Yukon leaders are taking a “wait and see” approach to the annual Freedom Fest, Scott said.
This patriotic celebration brings thousands of people to Chisholm Trail Park and Yukon City Park on July 3-4 each year.
Also in a holding pattern are sports groups that use the City of Yukon’s athletic fields.
“The ones I’ve talked to are hoping May,” Scott said. “But everything is ‘wait and see’.”
One of the first special events canceled was the Taste of Yukon on March 26 at the Dale Robertson Center, 1200 Lakeshore.
Also removed from the YPR docket this year were the Yukon Senior Games that had been scheduled April 17-25.
