2020 Strawberry Festival in downtown Billings canceled

BILLINGS, Mont. – The Downtown Billings Alliance announced Wednesday that the 29th Annual Strawberry Festival, currently scheduled for Sunday, September 13, has officially been canceled for the year.

DBA Events Director Lindsay Richardson said the following about the decision to cancel the event:

“Our mission as a non-profit is to act in the best interest of our downtown business community. We do not want to do anything to make a hard situation harder on the currently open downtown businesses or jeopardize their ability to remain open and operational. Additionally, Montana remains in stage 2 of the Governor’s economic re-opening stages, and stage 2 limits the size of gatherings where physical distancing cannot be maintained throughout. We believe monitoring attendance numbers and physical distancing would be extremely challenging for an event like this. This choice did not come easily however we feel this is the best decision for our downtown community and for the continued efforts to do our part to slow the spread of the virus.”