Last Saturday was supposed to be Centerfest Saturday. Last year, a beautiful sunny, hot, Saturday filled the streets with 7,000 people. It’s the biggest single event of Bedford’s Centertown for the year. This year, thanks to Tropical Storm Ophelia, it didn’t happen. The streets were empty except for normal Saturday traffic. Businesses saw their normal Saturday visitors, but nothing like they would have seen if the festival had happened.
This was the first time Centerfest has been cancelled since 2020 when royal decrees by King Ralph I made it impossible to hold the event.
Back a decade ago the weather turned the event into Rainfest. Event organizers decided to move it to early October instead of its usual third Saturday in September date. That didn’t work and a rainy, gloomy day threw a wet blanket on the festivities. Centerfest is always advertised as a rain or shine even, so it still took place. A few vendors set up and a few thousand people still turned out. However, event organizers moved the event back to its normal date and left well enough alone thereafter.
This year, the rain was different. Rather than some autumn unpleasantness, this was a tropical storm. Ophelia had waded ashore on the North Carolina coast and ultimately headed north along the I-95 corridor, stirring up hate and discontent on her way north.
Organizers of Centerfest, listening to forecasts, decided by Friday that holding this outdoor event would be impossible. They were seeing forecasts of torrential rain and high wind gusts. As it turned out, Ophelia kept her worst much farther east. We got a lot of rain, but not a deluge. It was breezy, but not bad. It was just really wet and unpleasantly chilly. Holing up in one of Bedford’s Centertown coffee shops with hot coffee was much more pleasant than roaming the streets.
It appears that Centerfest 2023 hasn’t been cancelled. Organizers still plan to have it and presented their plan to Bedford Town Council Tuesday night. Although this week’s Bulletin had already been printed by the time Council met, we can’t report the result this week, but we are sure Council went along with them.
Centerfest organizers certainly will have a challenge with the reschedule. That is probably why it was always a rain or shine event. Centerfest has lots of moving parts. There were 140 vendors scheduled and it may be difficult to find another Saturday when they are available as they probable schedule well in advance. The same is true about the food trucks. The more popular entertainers are probable booked up in advance.
It’s not going to be easy, but we all wish the organizers well.
It would also be good if they would weld the date of the event to the third Saturday of September. This year, September had five Saturdays, so Centerfest was scheduled for the fourth Saturday this month. If it had been held on the third Saturday, they would have had a beautiful day for it.
