Folk school cancels classes, festival

    Brasstown – John C. Campbell Folk School has suspended all scheduled programs and events for the remainder of the year – including the Fall Festival – but it’s not closed.
    Executive Director Jerry Jackson said while it was a challenging decision to make, he sees many good things coming out of it.
    The school will have some webinars and in-person programs with small, controlled-environment groups. The craft shop will be open for limited hours and will even have an online shop. Weekly Morningsongs will continue virtually at 7:45 a.m. Fridays on Facebook.
    He said the staff is also going to take this time to re-evaluate all the programs the school offers.
    “This gives us an opportunity to really market 2021 … and really come back strong,” Jackson said. “In some ways, it feels like we’re busier than we have been.”
    He said the school has had a task force meeting every week since the school closed in March. The task force has been following all information and guidance about the coronavirus, as well as looking at what other institutions were doing. The school also sent a survey to all instructors and students.
    Jackson said it was clear everyone wanted to come back, but there were still a lot of concerns. It was determined the school’s traditional atmosphere – including family dining and other gatherings – was not conducive to keeping people safe and healthy during the coronavirus pandemic, especially for the school’s older audience.
    “We didn’t feel like our students could experience the folk school in the way they normally do,” he said.
    Jackson added that if the folk school was a community school, it probably could have found a way to reopen. However, they attract people nationally and had to consider that in their decisions.
    The Fall Festival is uncontrollable for health and safety practices, he said, plus they already had several vendors cancel. It will only be the second time in 46 years that the festival was canceled; the 2015 event was rained out.
    “It’s back to safety and making sure our audience is protected,” Jackson said. “It’s making sure we’re all here to come back and enjoy the folk school in 2021.”
    About 15,000 people from all over the Southeast typically enjoy the Fall Festival each year.
    Jackson said the school’s financial committee would look at the budget and determine the ramifications for the fiscal year, including any needed staffing changes. The school was founded in 1925, and Jackson said he wants to take care of the longevity of school and celebrate its 100th anniversary.
    Cherokee County’s first confirmed COVID-19 case was a person who attended a contra dance at the folk school just days before the school closed. The folk school closed before state-mandated bans and closures, and even before it was informed of a positive test result.