Micro Events Saving Festivals?

The term “micro events” has been around for a while. It is used in marketing, especially in the media industry. But now a community has taken the idea and revamped it for their own use. Summerville, a suburb of Charleston, South Carolina, is using micro events to save their annual Sweet Tea Festival.

Sweet Tea Festival, by Daniel Rothamel; Creative Commons 2.0

Much like many of the community festivals throughout the United States, the possibility of holding the Sweet Tea Festival was in doubt for this year. The festival serves as Summerville’s annual tribute to the claim of being the birthplace of sweet tea. It is usually a large festival that helps the downtown shops thrive.

However, instead of one large festival, organizers have arranged for a series of smaller events over an entire week. Each of the attractions for the week have been scaled down to make them more manageable in the context of the current COVID-19 impacted environment. With these smaller events it is easier for those holding the event and those attending to meet safety guidelines.

Although the event revolves around tasting various sweet teas, disposable cups will be used. Servers offering the tea will also be required to wear masks. The booths for the taste testing will be spread out throughout the downtown. Attendees also need to meet social distancing guidelines.

The event schedule shows the various events spaced out at different locations and on different days of the week of the celebration. Some of the events are also repeated to allow attendees to pick different days throughout the week to attend. This allows the event to spread out and thin the crowd through the week.

Your community’s festival may differ significantly from that of Summerville’s Sweet Tea Festival. But there may be a few takeaways from how this town has re-imagined their annual event. Micro events may be the way to keep your event going during COVID-19 and have your community enjoy the sweet success.

This post the latest in Rural Resurrection’s ongoing series regarding COVID-19. Rural Resurrection will be posting regularly about the virus’ impact on rural governments and what local leaders can do. Follow us to stay informed of recent posts as we all work our way through this as “we are all in this together”.