What organizers promise will be the first annual Springfield Holiday Festival is scheduled for December 19th from 11 a.m.–3 p.m. in Court Square in the heart of the city’s downtown.
“It’s just a tremendous, feel-good event,” said Mayor Domenic Sarno, who was joined by some of the event organizers Monday at City Hall to announce the festival. According to the mayor’s office the free festival will include music, poets, and performance groups.
“Santa, the big guy, is going to be there,” Sarno said. “There will be a lot of stuff for young people and their families and we want to see the beautiful mosaic of the city of Springfield.”
The city is supporting the event along with a couple of non-profit groups, a fraternal organization, and corporate sponsors.
The festival is being organized by Springfield Together, a nonprofit that since 2013 has put on community events such as Halloween parties and Easter egg hunts in the Forest Park neighborhood.
Gary DeLisle, a board member, said given the rising COVID-19 case counts, it was decided to run the risk of bad weather and hold the festival outdoors.
“Unsure of what the COVID restrictions might be, we did not want to plan an inside event and have to cancel it, so we think this is a great spot to do it – centrally located and easier for people to get to” explained DeLisle. “We are really excited about it.”
Along with Sarno, the other co-chairs for the festival are Springfield Police Commissioner Cheryl Clapprood and Teka Jones, Executive Director of Strong Young Minds, a program that focuses on the social and emotional development of teenagers.
“December 19th is definitely going to go down in history as the start of something we are going to have every year,” declared Jones.
Clapprood said the festival will be an opportunity to promote community policing.
“The way to improve police-community relations is for us to get to know each other,” Clapprood said.
Other supporters and sponsors of the festival include the Elks Lodge #61, Walmart, the Dunn & Phillips law firm, and Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi.
Additional sponsors and volunteers for the festival are still being sought, according to organizers.
A tentative schedule of events for the festival and other information is available at the website and Facebook page of Springfield Together.
