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Organizers of the Bear Paw Festival in Eagle River have postponed the event and are working with the state and the Municipality of Anchorage to figure out how and when to hold the festival during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Festival organizers made the announcement Monday, two days after the Alaska Republican Party District 14 Executive Committee sent a letter to the Anchorage Assembly and Mayor Ethan Berkowitz asking them to reverse a decision to withhold a permit for the Eagle River event, originally scheduled to run July 8 to 12.
The letter from the GOP group said that the city had denied the festival’s permit.
Festival organizers say they made the decision to postpone the event themselves and are working with the city and state to hold the event safely.
They hope to announce a new festival date soon, and have chosen to give this year’s event the theme of “bear pause.”
Colin Fay, chairman of Bear Paw Festival, said the city has been helpful and is putting the permits on hold while the festival plans how to encourage social distancing and works with vendors to schedule a new date, hopefully this summer.
The festival’s Monday announcement says that complaints to the city were made before reaching out to the festival to better understand the situation.
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“We want it known that the actions of those with intentions to help by making demands can actually hurt the goals of the festival by undermining progress made with the Municipality and State,” the announcement says.
Julie Blackley, the Alaska Republican Party District 14 chairwoman who penned the letter, did not immediately return a request for comment. On Monday, a spokeswoman with the municipality also said city officials weren’t immediately available to comment
The event, in its 35th year, historically draws 40,000 people. It’s a family-friendly festival that includes a car show, a beer and music festival, a parade and more.
Blackley’s letter called on Berkowitz and the Assembly to “immediately” support the issuing of permits for the event, which she said would be run in a safe way.
“We hope you would agree that holding this year’s Bear Paw Festival will go a long way to heal the fractured social, psychological, and economic health of our community from these past four months of hunkering down,” Blackley said in the letter. “Many people have been anxiously preparing for it. Indeed, we need it.”
The festival’s Monday announcement called rumors that the permits were denied “misleading.”
“Our goal is to shift our energy from diffusing well-intended lobbying gone awry and halting the spread of misinformation, back toward the planning of a much-needed community festival that keeps public health and safety at the forefront,” the festival announcement said.
Anchorage Daily News reporter Tess Williams contributed.
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