Gretna Heritage Festival Cancels

The list is growing for Louisiana festivals that are canceling celebrations for 2021. And it feels like 2020 all over again. The Delta variant of the coronavirus is wreaking havoc on our efforts to return to normal this year, and it's extremely disappointing to have so many of our annual traditions ripped away once again.

Health officials had hoped that with the COVID vaccine widely available that things could be different this year, but so far Louisiana has been one of the top hot spots for the alarming surge in cases in the last couple of weeks. And events that should have brought back some economic stability to our state are being cancelled for the second year in a row. New Orleans now has four major events/ festivals that have cancelled in the last week. New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, White Linen Night, and the Red Dress Run. And the latest to cancel festivities for this year is the Gretna Heritage Festival, which was celebrating its 25th year, and would have been held on October 22, 23, and 24. The economic impact for our state is stunning, and not something we wanted to experience again in 2021

The Gretna Heritage Festival released a statement saying "The city of Gretna, in collaboration with the Gretna Economic Development Association and the Gretna Heritage Festival, have decided, after careful consideration of the public's safety, to cancel this year's Gretna Heritage Festival due to COVID concerns." You can see the full statement below.

State health officials report, via WWL that the majority of the new cases were found in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and the north shore. And Louisiana has had over 48,000 new cases of the virus in the first nine days of August. C'mon Louisiana, we can do better.