Coronavirus Claims Flaming Foliage Festival

RENOVO – Past floods could not stop Renovo’s annual presentation of its Flaming Foliage Festival. But the 72nd annual staging won’t be happening this October, falling victim to the coronavirus.

The Flaming Foliage Festival committee decided on Sunday that festival number 72 will have to wait until 2021. The 2020 edition has been canceled.

Committee members said schools have traditionally selected their queen representatives in the spring of the preceding school year. But schools closed in mid-March this year and never reopened, so candidates have not been selected for this fall. Additionally no high school bands have committed to participating.

The annual event traditionally attracts tens of thousands of people to western Clinton County on the second weekend of October. Committee members were reported deeply disappointed but saw no other alternative.