By Mike Finney

DOVER — For nearly 90 years, the first weekend in May has always been reserved for the city’s time to come back to life after a long, cold winter — to dance around the maypole with other members of the community and a time to celebrate the city’s past while relishing the present.

It is the weekend that has been reserved for the annual Dover Days Festival, which was first held in 1933 and honors all things Dover at Legislative Mall, The Green and all the historic spots in between.

Unfortunately, Dover Mayor Robin Christiansen was forced to announce Wednesday morning that, for the second year in a row, the Dover Days Festival would be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It breaks my heart to have to make the announcement that we, as a committee, have decided (to cancel the festival) because of all the unknowns and uncertainties of the future of where we’re going to be in three months with this pandemic,” Mayor Christiansen said. “It is our responsibility to maintain the public safety and health of the citizens of the city of Dover and the folks who would have come here to celebrate the greatness of Dover during the Dover Days Festival.

“Having said that, I very reluctantly announce that the 2021 Dover Days Festival will be canceled. We do this with great trepidation and reluctance, but we feel for the healthy survival of the Dover Days Festival and its viability in the future that we have to do this to keep it relevant for all of our citizens.”

It marks only the second time other than the years 1942, 1943 and 1944 — during World War II — that the Dover Days Festival has been called off.

Chris Cooper is president of the city’s Dover Days Committee, which took over control of coordinating the event last year after Kent County Tourism had put the festival together since 1995. The committee has yet to hold the festival but is already setting its sights on 2022.

“As the mayor said, it’s a tough decision. It’s a tough spot to be in, and there’s just so many unknowns with what’s going to happen with the (COVID) vaccine and with the allowances for crowds,” Mr. Cooper said. “As a committee, we kind of decided that one of the big things was we didn’t want to do a disservice to the Dover Days Festival and to what it has been for so many years.

“It’s a sad day. I never, ever expected that we could cancel Dover Days two years in a row, and I’m looking forward to getting to work on planning 2022 and bringing it back bigger and better than ever.”

Kay Sass, public affairs and emergency management coordinator for the city of Dover, said it’s hard to believe that a year has gone by since the cancellation of the festival in 2020. She said it was easier to cancel this time around because now everyone has seen the pain and devastation COVID-19 has wrought.

“Unfortunately, when this pandemic started, we hoped everything would be normal in a couple of weeks,” Ms. Sass said. “We were like, ‘We’ll wear the masks. We’ll play along,’ and be able to return to normalcy within the month. Who would have thought, here a year later, here we would still be?

“I think another really important piece to remember with all of this is the amount of time and effort it takes for the committee to be able to really orchestrate this, to make sure it is a healthy, safe environment for everyone ... the number of players that take part in all of this, from the vendors to all the other organizations. This is a very big job and a very time-consuming job.”

To lose Dover Days, the city’s premier community festival, for a second consecutive year is a difficult pill to swallow. After all, it is one of Delaware’s largest and longest-running free events.

Community members and visitors to Dover Days are always eager to see the biggest parade in Kent County, traditional maypole dancing, games, tethered hot-air balloon rides, dozens of craft and food vendors, music, a pie-eating contest, a Colonial artisans’ village and historic reenactments.

Mayor Christiansen said moving Dover Days to another date on the calendar was never really considered.

“Traditionally, and I’m a traditionalist, I thought to keep it at its traditional time,” the mayor said of the first week in May. “It’s really the kickoff after the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and a kickoff for a number of activities in downtown Dover, such as the Fourth of July fireworks; the Veterans Day Parade; Comic Con; History, Heritage & Hops; and Octoberfest.

“So we felt that we didn’t want to bump up against them, and we wanted to keep the uniqueness of celebrating all of the beautiful flowers and trees and just coming out of a long, cold winter (and) that Dover Days just seemed to bring people out into the streets. We felt that it was best to keep it at its original time period, which is always the first weekend in May.”

A little festival fodder

Mayor Christiansen began his announcement Wednesday with a look into the history of the Dover Days Festival.

The mayor said it all began in 1933, when the Dover Garden Club, headed by Mabel Lloyd Ridgely, “established a precursor to what we now know as the Dover Days Festival.”

“It began as just a simple tour of homes and gardens in the area and evolved to the crowning of May queens to the maypole dancing,” Mayor Christiansen said. “It showcases the history of Dover, along with a celebration of the history of today and the participation of Dover’s part in the establishment of America in the future.”

The Dover Days Festival has been supported over the years by the Friends of Old Dover, the city of Dover, Kent County Tourism and the Dover Century Club, among other organizations that have stepped forward to showcase the history and greatness of the city.

The new Dover Days Committee consists of community leaders who want to preserve the tradition of the event, while also introducing festival-goers to the many things to see and do year-round in downtown Dover. Proceeds from the new Dover Days Festival will benefit downtown Dover projects, which the committee hopes will help make positive impacts to the heart of the city.

Mayor Christiansen promised that Dover Days will return stronger than ever in 2022.

“Basically, I guess with this pandemic that we’re up against, we are basically at war,” he said. “There are so many unknowns and mutations of the COVID-19 virus, so much information that we are given that changes from day to day, that we as a committee, along with myself as mayor, sat down and took a long hard look with where we need to go with the 2021 Dover Days Festival.

“We got to a point where we had to sit down and realistically look at the information that we had in front of us. Even with the vaccinations going on, we had to make a tough decision.”

He added, “We are beginning to plan for the 2022 Dover Days Festival, which we will come roaring back bigger and better than before.”