Update: We have waited as long as we feel we can in order to make a final decision. We have been in contact with state throughout this process. Our hope was that there might be exceptions made, or mitigation actions we could take, in order to still put on this great event. We recently got word from the state that we will not be allowed to operate ETAR or PCBF at Ski Denton this year. I appreciate the local help from DCNR and many others that have tried to make this event happen. Unfortunately, though these decisions go much higher up the ladder to Harrisburg, and we are not making much headway there. It has never been our intent to put our guests, employees, or even community at risk by hosting this event. We tried to weigh each of those things carefully as we proceeded. We truly felt that even though the event brings in thousands, we could mitigate many of the Covid related issues, given the size of the property, and some commonsense guidelines. Typically, at our events even though there are thousands in attendance, many opt to hang out at campsites, or shoot courses over the 500+ acre property, in much smaller groups. It’s rare to see more than 250 people gathered in close quarters together in one spot at the shoot, and our goal was to limit those areas where there may be problems: like the dealer tents, swap meets, eagle eye shoot-outs, etc. We understand this represents a risk but to us it was a risk worth taking for the archery community, for the local economy, and even just for our own piece of mind!
Many of the rules or guidelines being written at the moment look great on paper but are hard pressed to encompass all situations they will likely encounter, like our event. Having to shut down this event, this summer, after 30+ years of running it, is well, inconceivable!
This not only will hurt us financially, but many of the dealers expressed to us how much they need this event to happen. Local county officials, motel owners, restaurant and bar owners have contacted us hoping and praying that this event would go on as planned because it’s crucial to their bottom line.
Our goal in this post isn’t really to place blame, or point fingers, but to be real and honest about where we are at, what we’ve tried to do, and give you a taste of our frustrations. We also know our frustrations are minor compared to what many others have experienced due to this virus. It’s easy to point fingers at Governors, legislators, lawmakers, etc., and we could debate this stuff back and forth for a long time, but right now we will hope this closure will truly affect the greater good and leave it at that.
So that was the bad news.
The good news is… (And there is always good news!) we will have ETARand PCBF again next year same time which makes ETAR July 22-25, 2021 and PCBF Aug. 19-22, 2021..
We also will be tossing around the idea of doing another smaller shoot off premise sometime this summer w/ details to come later. Also, if interested we’ve had some express interest in shirts, buttons, etc… so we will explore selling those on here as well. (Special shirt ideas let us know!)
We love you all, and look forward to reuniting again! Stay safe, support your archery/ Trad dealers, of whom many are especially hurting right now, and remain hopeful because we will get thru this together!
Topic: ETAR Cancelled (Read 628 times)
