The Ox Cart Days “Fun in 2021″ planning committee is moving forward with plans to host Crookston’s summer festival the third week of August.
Ox Cart Days Chair Jess Bengston said the hope is to have a full festival with many of the big events that were originally scheduled for Ox Cart Days 2020. “As many people know, we had to take a little break, and things were a little different in 2020,” said Bengston. “We adapted. Some of our organizers were still able to host a few safe events. We’re trying to look forward to 2021 and get back to that full schedule that we had planned for 2020, including the Saturday night street dance with Snake Oil, a tribute rock band from Canada. We’ve got circus entertainment that has trapeze artists, firebreathers, and you name it. We have lots of other awesome things planned. We are trying to push forward in our planning while also realizing there still might be some restriction on events.”
Even with that hope, Bengtson says the committee is still working on a few different scenarios for events keeping in mind Minnesota’s current pandemic-related restrictions plus figuring out how long they’ll wait until they alter plans. “We’re keeping that in the back of our mind if we still have the restrictions, we have right now,” said Bengston. “Whether we can have a full festival, partial festival, or what events will be safe for everybody, we want to keep Ox Cart Days in people’s minds. We want to do things still. We want something for the community. We want people to come back to Crookston that week to visit their family and friends. And to have fun in Crookston. Whatever we can do, we’ll do it. We’re planning for big and bold, but if we have to bring it back a little bit to host some smaller events, we’ll have to do that as well. We’re waiting to hear back from the state on that. It might be a little while.”
The planning committee has also discussed ox Cart Days’ sponsorships. The group previously agreed to carry over any 2020 sponsorships to 2021, plus crafting request letters to other potential sponsors who might want to be involved with the festival. “We’re so thankful for all of our sponsors, and our sponsors are really the people, businesses, and organizations that keep us going,” said Bengston. “We transferred those 2020 sponsorships over to 2021, so those people are going to be continually recognized and thanked. We want to publicly thank them as many times as we can for their support. We will be sending out some letters in early spring, maybe late spring. Some companies like to give every year. Their corporate owners like to see that, count it on their tax’s things like that. Those letters will go out to those interested, but there are also some other opportunities for new sponsors. Those will be linked to those sponsors. They can put their name on it, show up at the event, have signs out there. We’ll advertise for them. There is room for more sponsors. And we will continue to recognize our awesome sponsors who support us every year, through the years, and even just last year if they’re new. We’re thankful for that.”
Additionally, the planning committee will closely observe what happens with restrictions and planning for the Minnesota State Fair as a barometer for planning Ox Cart Days.“We’re kind of following the state fair to see what happens there,” said Bengtson. “We’re not going to have millions of people. I mean, it would be nice but that’s kind of what we’re following because they are just after Ox Cart Days typically. We’ll see what happens with the restrictions and how many people (you can have). Obviously, we want to welcome at least 5,000 or more people into Crookston that week with the big events we have and the money we have scheduled to go out for those big events. We want to make it the best we can do, have a big party, with as many people as we can get. We’re planning on the full thing right now and looking forward to August for sure.”
For up-to-date information about Ox Cart Days, visit www.crookstonoxcartdays.com or on Ox Cart Days’ social media pages like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Anyone interested in becoming involved with the committee, sponsoring an event, or wanting to know more about the festival, can contact Bengtson at 701-610-6454.
