MLK Festival postponed due to COVID
Kathleen Hilliard
The MLK Coalition of Southwest Louisiana has announced its decision to postpone the events for the Martin Luther King Jr. Festival, originally set for Jan. 15-18.
The group made the announcement on their Facebook page, MLK Festival of SWLA, first announcing the postponement of their honorees brunch.
“After careful consultation with our MLK Board, we have made the difficult decision to reschedule the 2021 MLK Honorees Brunch.
Following increased and overwhelming concerns about the COVID-19 virus, we felt this was the best way to proceed during such an unprecedented global situation,” their statement reads. “We are very disappointed that we are unable to hold this event at this time. But we know it’s the right decision based on the information we have today.”
Cary Chavis, spokesperson for the coalition, said the group plans to instead host the event in February.
“We just felt as this time it was imperative to practice social distancing and the MLK Honorees Brunch could be counter-productive, so we postponed it to February,” Chavis said.
Chavis confirmed all events for the festival — the community awards, community service day, candlelight vigil and Movement March — will all also be postponed to February.
She said details on dates and times will be made available as soon as they are decided upon.
“All official MLK events are postponed,” Chavis said. “The MLK Coalition would like to encourage everyone to continue to practice social distancing and mask up.”
Rick Hickman