Committee Cancels 2020 Cane Hill Harvest Festival

The 34th annual Cane Hill Harvest Festival scheduled for Sept. 19 and 20 has been canceled due to concerns about the covid-19 virus.

Festival committee members voted on June 4 to cancel plans for the 2020 festival, according to Jim Lewis, festival committee chairman. The festival features free outdoor concerts on both Saturday and Sunday and the popular all-you-can eat country breakfast both days.

The festival also includes arts and crafts, an antique tractor show, living history presentations, concessions and demonstrations of locals making sorghum molasses, hominy, lye soap and more.

Committee members were concerned about the safety of visitors and volunteers and reducing the possible spread of the virus, Lewis explained. They were also concerned that following the covid-19 guidelines for food service and social distancing might be difficult or impossible to meet. Organizers plan to resume the festival next year, he said.

Sorghum has been planted to make the molasses that would have been sold at this year's festival. Lewis said volunteers will harvest the sorghum and make molasses sometime this fall, just not during the festival as a demonstration.

The festival is held on the campus of the renovated Historic Cane Hill College, which is located just west of Arkansas 45 about four miles south of U.S. 62 between Prairie Grove and Lincoln.