Annual Fall Festival Cancelled for 2020

​The Bensalem Fall Festival began as Bensalem Pride Day during our Tri-Centennial Celebration in 1992.  Mayor DiGirolamo, then a local business owner, was the Chairman of the Tri-Centennial Commission that organized and hosted that very first Pride Day Celebration, and the Mayor has been at the heart of each and every Pride Day and Fall Festival Celebration that has been held since that time.
 
It is therefore with the utmost sadness that today we must announce the cancellation of the 2020 Fall Festival. 
 
Each year thousands of Bensalem Residents gather in our Central Park to enjoy a day full of rides, games, performances and demonstrations, foods and crafts from a vast array of vendors, and the annual car show.  The Festival would conclude with a concert under the stars at our Penn Community Bank Amphitheatre and a second-to-none fireworks display prepared by internationally renowned Zambelli Fireworks.
 
The Fall Festival involves nearly a year’s worth of planning by a great number of people within the Township.  As the Governor’s Declaration of Emergency, Stay at Home Order, and Phased Reopening Plans went into effect in March and April, the Township initially put Fall Festival Plans on hold, hoping that as time progressed, a Fall Festival, smaller in size and scope than normal, might still be possible.  As Governor Wolf moved Bucks County into the “Green Phase” of his Reopening Plan at the end of June, the Township began working on a plan that would have kept this year’s concert under the stars and fireworks display as scheduled, hoping that the Governor’s restrictions on outdoor gatherings would have been further modified or even lifted by Labor Day.
 
Sadly, last week the Governor extended his Declaration of Emergency for another 90 days, carrying us up to the end of November.  Further, the Governor’s prohibition against outdoor crowds or gatherings of greater than 250 people remains in effect, and neither the Governor nor the Secretary of Health have given any indication that this 250 person limitation will be either lifted or modified at any time in the near future.   As we are now less than a month from the October 3rd Fall Festival date, we have no alternative but to acknowledge, at this time, that the show cannot go on.
 
As Summer has now drawn to a close, and the final few months of this unprecedented year are upon us, let us pray for our lives to soon return to normal.  Until then, please stay safe, and please take time to appreciate the things in our lives that we too often take for granted until they are suddenly gone.