PINCKNEYVILLE (WSIL) -- Pinckneyville's Mardi Gras celebration is a big draw for the city.
"So we usually do a vendor fair, we usually do a car show, we usually do a big parade that attracts multiple people across the area."
And that's the problem the city is facing amid the COVID-19 pandemic, says Chamber of Commerce Executive Director, Christian Feltmeyer.
"We are planning on just doing the 50/50, the pageant, and teeshirts and merchandise is what we plan to do for this year's mardi gras celebration, which is the 98th."
Chamber Board Secretary, Betti Mucha, says they're scaling back instead of canceling, in part, so they can celebrate their centennial anniversary without problem.
"Because we're approaching our 100th year, so we already have plans in place for that 100th year, so skipping a year would've been very hard to proceed with those kind of things."
She says canceling the entire festival would've also had devastating financial effects.
"It supports the chamber, it supports the businesses in town so we have a chamber. I understand it seems like it's just benefiting the chamber, but without having something this year, it's going to prevent us from having future Mardi Gras."
In the end it just came down to what events could be held safely.
"We bring in hundreds of thousands of people for the vendor fair and for the parade, and we can't monitor all those people and make sure they wear masks, and make sure they wash their hands, We did not want to have a huge outbreak of Covid because we had mardi gras, so we're having the things that we can control," says Mucha.
Feltmeyer expressed their concern for the well being of their community.
"We really just care a lot about the community, and we think that's the first priority."
The Chamber says this year's decision was not easy, and they hope the town can find pride in the fact that they are able to keep the tradition alive.
