Petersburg's Little Norway Festival cancelled

PETERSBURG – The Petersburg Chamber of Commerce has officially cancelled this year's Little Norway Festival due to uncertainties over how long state health mandates to shelter in place and maintaining social distancing will remain in place.

Chamber Administrator Mara Lutomski said the choice to cancel the 62nd Little Norway Festival was a hard decision for the chamber board.

"No one wants to cancel a festival that has been such a rich part of Petersburg history," said Lutomski.

The chamber of commerce and the Little Norway Festival committee put on the weekend-long event each year. Lutomski said the chamber ensures that the downtown area is shut down to traffic and vendors are able to set up shop, while the committee volunteers organize and plan each of their events.

For about three days, residents and tourists mill around the downtown area, making purchases at local businesses and the vendors that line Main Street with different types of food.

"The Little Norway Festival is like a well-run machine," said Lutomski. "Everybody does their part and the chamber helps to bring those parts together. It doesn't take a huge amount of effort year after year, but it does take some work and planning and thought."

Lutomski said the borough will likely take a hit in the amount of sales and transient room tax it usually collects in May.Additionally, Lutomski said nearly every hotel room is reserved; as a result, the borough's four percent transient room tax, or bed tax, that it collects on a single night's lodging expense won't be as high. Lutomski said the bed tax goes to a fund that supports the local visitor related industry.

Borough Finance Directory Jody Tow said the borough doesn't track sales tax and bed tax during the Little Norway Festival since businesses file their sales tax returns on a monthly basis.

"Hopefully this will be a one-off thing," said Lutomski. "This will be the year the Little Norway Festival didn't happen. We'll come back at it next year and celebrate next year."

Petersburg also hosts a Fourth of July celebration that spans two or more days. Lutomski said planning for that event hasn't started yet, but the borough has discussed purchasing fireworks.