Study Shows 50th Waterfowl Festival Will Be Important Part of Recovery

As the country, the state of Maryland and the Eastern Shore look forward to a smoother 2021, Waterfowl is gearing up to be a strong force in our region’s economic recovery. The newly released “Economic & Cultural Impact of the 2019 Waterfowl Festival”, developed from data collected at the 2019 event, shows that Festival visitors are especially loyal guests who fueled $2.6 million in economic impact for Talbot County. This is a remarkable result for a once-a-year event of its size. If the past is prologue and with vaccines beginning to roll out, the report findings offer insights into what the region is likely to experience in November 2021 — a 50th Waterfowl Festival that is truly a once-in-a-century celebration and economic boon for the county.

“Waterfowl Chesapeake commissioned this study to showcase the cultural and economic value of the Waterfowl Festival. We wanted to clearly demonstrate what this event means for our community and our region,” explains Executive Director, Margaret Enloe. “These studies are exhaustive and most non-profits don’t pursue them due to costs. So we are incredibly grateful that the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority recognized the importance of this work and provided grant funding needed to accomplish it. The quantitative and qualitative evidence here backs up what we knew in our hearts — that our celebration of wildlife art, sporting heritage and the Eastern Shore lifestyle is woven into the fabric of our region and our state.”

The 2019 study of the three-day event revealed the Festival’s economic and cultural impact on the Town of Easton, Talbot County and beyond. More than 15,000 people are estimated to have attended the last Waterfowl Festival.  Of those people, the more than 6,000 visitors who travelled to the Shore spent nearly $3 million on various goods and services in Talbot County.  Just over one-third of their spending was on retail shopping, both at the Festival venues and at local businesses – an amount that is three times the industry average. The Festival itself adds half a million dollars in operating monies to the economy, just to create the annual event.

The study was conducted by Rockport Analytics, an independent firm based in Annapolis, MD.  Rockport has a long-standing track record of creating credible assessments of economic impact for leading organizations in both the private and public sectors. Their analysts have conducted a multitude of event and attraction impacts including those for high profile events like the Super Bowl, the Pocono 500, and the Masters.

Click here to download Graphic Summary of Report

Click here to download a PDF of the Full Report

While understanding the economic figures is important, Waterfowl Festival’s deeply rooted history means that it also has an impact on quality of life and culture. To explore these connections, Rockport’s experts also conducted surveys of residents to gain a clearer picture of the Festival’s connection to the Talbot County community.  Survey results show that most residents:

• Recognize the crucial role the event plays in keeping traditions alive and that 82% believe the Waterfowl Festival is “very important or essential” to celebrating and showcasing the local culture and heritage; 

• Acknowledge the Festival’s ability to bring people together with 63% of resident attendees believing that it is “very important or essential” to uniting the community toward a common goal; and,

• Believe that the Waterfowl Festival is “very important or essential” to igniting a sense of community pride. 


“Given everything we learned from this report and people’s pent-up eagerness to begin to enjoy the company of their friends and family,” says Festival President Kevin Greaney, “we believe that the 50th Festival in November 2021 will be an integral part of bolstering our local economy – perhaps even more than in past years since we suspect we’ll have more visitors to Talbot County than ever!”

Other findings from the 2019 study:

• The Waterfowl Festival itself infuses $496,000 in event-related operating expenses by vendors, exhibitors and event organizers into the Talbot County economy.
• Of the more than 15,120 attendees, 45% visited specifically for the Festival and came from more than 50 miles away; each visitor spent slightly more than $400 on average during their trip.
• Waterfowl visitors average retail spend of $138 is more than twice the spend of visitors to the County at other times.
• Visitors stayed an average of 2.1 nights with 41% visiting Easton for the day, while the remaining 59% stayed overnight in other hotels, rentals or with friends in the region.
• Festival-initiated activity supported a total of 48 jobs (predominantly in hospitality), which resulted in $1.6 million in wages paid in Talbot County. A large proportion of these wages ripple through the economy as workers spend their income on various goods and services throughout the local area.
• Talbot County retained about 74 cents of every dollar spent locally by Festival visitors and organizers.
• The Waterfowl Festival generated enough state & local tax revenues to pay the salaries of 9 Talbot County teachers or educate 32 Talbot County public school students.
• About 14 cents of every dollar spent by Festival visitors was retained as state or local tax revenue.
• Visitor spending associated with the Festival generated an estimated $787,000 in tax receipts, including $357,000 in federal receipts and $429,000 at state and local levels.
• The event contributed roughly $29,000 in hotel taxes and nearly $6,000 in state and local taxes and fees.

“Net Promoter Scores” (NPS) are critical measurements for understanding customer loyalty and satisfaction. On a scale of 100, scores in the 60s are considered very good for an event. Festival’s NPS scores were well above this threshold and actually were excellent across its variety of audiences.

• Those who visited to “[enjoy] the cultural heritage & traditions of the Chesapeake Bay & Maryland’s Eastern Shore” and “because attending is a family tradition” both had NPS scores of 86.
• Repeat Visitors to Talbot County have an NPS of 83. First-time visitors to Talbot County had slightly higher NPS scores than repeat visitors at 86 vs 83 respectively.
• Of visitors who stayed overnight, those staying in Easton had one of the highest NPS scores at 90.
• The overall NPS for Talbot County Residents is 62 and the score for visitors is 74.

Rockport Analytics used the IMPLAN (or “impact analysis for planning”) modeling system that draws from the most extensive economic database available while allowing for the input of detailed and relevant local data, thereby generating a detailed analysis of Festival related spending and its local economic benefits. The IMPLAN software is the industry standard that has been used by government agencies, academia, and leading researchers for more than 40 years to carry out economic impact studies.

“Over our history, Waterfowl has invested nearly $4 million in habitat conservation, more than $1.2 million in education, and more than $26,000 in wildlife research initiatives,” says Enloe. “In 2020 we worked to support our community, our artists and Waterfowl stakeholders with new programming like CommUNITY Day, which offered local residents a way to be together without coming together. We also dove into the virtual world, creating the Festival’s first Virtual Art gallery, a program that continues to successfully connect art lovers to the finest of waterfowl and wildlife artists. As we begin 2021, we can’t wait for the 50th Festival, when our guests and devoted friends can once again flock to Easton to celebrate our shared love for the fall and the bird life it brings to the Chesapeake Bay region.”

Click here to download the PDF of the Full Report

Study Data and Graphics Compiled by:

Rockport Analytics
Annapolis, MD
West Chester, PA
web: rockportanalytics.com
email:
phone: (866) 481-9877

Window Restoration Project at Waterfowl Building Complete

Waterfowl Chesapeake is excited to announce that the restoration of the historic steel frame windows at the Waterfowl Building is complete. The intensive $100,000 project was funded by Maryland Historical Trust’s Historic Preservation Capital Grant Program back in 2018 and was one of only seven projects funded that year across the state. 

“This was a very intensive project. Our contractor, Architectural Window Restoration, carefully removed each window while being attentive to the surrounding masonry and building structure,” explains Margaret Enloe, Waterfowl Chesapeake’s Executive Director. “All twenty-eight windows were taken to AWR’s facilities where they were cleaned, structurally repaired, primed and painted. They even had to rebuild sections to make the windows fully close. Finally, to improve our energy efficiency, all the new glass is insulated. Every step of the process also met local historic district approvals, MHT’s standards and the Secretary of Interior’s Guidelines for Historic Preservation.”  

The historic Easton armory, now referred to as the Waterfowl Building, was built in 1927 after several years of lobbying by local residents and elected officials. Its design was overseen by Robert Lawrence Harris, the state architect under the administration of Governor Albert C. Ritchie. While it’s primary function was to serve as a training facility for Maryland’s state militia, the armory’s drill hall, now called Festival Hall, also served as a community gathering place for everything from boxing matches and basketball games to flower shows, poultry exhibitions and art festivals over the decades. Waterfowl took ownership of the building in 1997, after a stint of ownership by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Town of Easton.

“We are so grateful to MHT for recognizing the historic relevance of our building and its value to the community and to AWR for a stellar job,” concludes Executive Director Margaret Enloe. “Our hope is that the restored windows and frames will enhance the beauty of the space and encourage even more people to see us as a gathering place.”

2020 Hall of Fame Awardees Announced

The Waterfowl Festival Board of Directors is proud to announce the outstanding artists and volunteers who have been nominated and inducted into Hall of Fame for 2020 – renowned Sculptors William H. Turner and David H. Turner; former Board Member and Sculpture Gallery Chair Doug Collison; and former Festival Board President and Carving Gallery Chair Debra Perry Jackson, in memoriam.

 

“As Board President, one of the things I look forward to most during Waterfowl Festival week is the ceremony inducting the newest members into the Hall of Fame,” said WF Board President Kevin Greaney. “While we had to postpone this year’s Festival, we didn’t want to delay this year’s class as each person has been a very important part of the success of the Festival for years. We will recognize the 2020 Hall of Fame recipients at next year’s Festival Opening Ceremonies but they are official awardees this year.”

 

William H. Turner and David H. Turner

The Festival is a family tradition for many, but for father/son duo William H. and David H. Turner that is even more the case than most. They are welcomed into the Hall of Fame for their dedication to both the Festival and their commitment to creating incredible bronze sculptures of Chesapeake Bay and other wildlife that showcase the intricacies of our region’s ecosystem.

Established in 1983, Turner Sculpture near Onley, VA serves as the studio, foundry and gallery, where most of their work is displayed. To date the Turners have created more than 700 different limited edition bronzes and more than 100 large public commissions found throughout the United States. William or “Doc” Turner as he is known, first began making the drive up to Easton for the Festival in 1983. Since then, he and his son, David, a former wildlife biologist, have been some of the foundational artists in our annual sculpture gallery.

In 2016, the Festival chose David as its Featured Artist. His unique and ultimately very popular bronze for that year was Tidewater Terrapin – a different subject matter choice for the Festival that highlighted the ways waterfowl and other Bay creatures are connected. It featured a graceful Diamondback Terrapin, Maryland’s state terrapin, swimming mid-air above the Bay bottom of oysters and grasses. David’s work has always helped the Festival expand its horizons.

Doug Collison

From setting up the Sculpture Tent to packing up when the festivities are over, chances are if you see Doug Collison during Festival weekend, his sleeves are rolled up. Nominated to the Hall of Fame by one of “his” artists, all our visiting sculptors know they can depend on him if they run into any issues during the Festival.

“Doug’s priority is always the artists,” Says Featured Art Chairman Kathy Dawkins. “First and foremost he wants them to have a successful show.”

Doug also steps up to volunteer to help host the volunteer party, usually behind the bar to serve up drinks for a job well done. Aside from being hands-on during Festival weekend, Doug has also served multiple terms on the Waterfowl Festival Board of Directors and on Festival committees. He is the epitome of a volunteer leader for our event and the type of person we rely on year after year for our success.

Debra Perry Jackson

Debbye Jackson had fond childhood memories of the Festival, and the Festival has many fond memories of Debbye. Debbye truly climbed the ladder, starting out as the very first “Ducksitter,” when she would monitor exhibits as a child so carving artists could take breaks. Her father, the late Festival co-founder Bill Perry and others called her “Debbye the Ducksitter” and the name stuck. Today, we still call our youth volunteers “ducksitters”.

Though Debbye would invest her efforts in multiple aspects of the Festival over her four decades of commitment, her love and passion always remained with the Carvers and the Carving Gallery that showcases fine sculptures of bird life and waterfowl. She led the Carving Committee each year in searching out potential new carvers to include in the Festival, always wanting to balance the traditional with the up and coming. Debbye always demonstrated her commitment to the Festival’s carvers and volunteers — they knew that they were ‘her’ people. Debbye strove for success and quality in all that she did year after year leading her army of equally dedicated family year after year.

Her other favorite project was the William A. Perry Scholarship Fund, which provides annual scholarships to young people pursuing higher education. As a chairperson for the annual Decoy and Art Auction, held during the Festival’s Premiere Night, Debbye worked tirelessly to collect donations from carvers, painters and sculptors for this auction that supports the scholarship program. Named for Debbye’s father and with the requirement that applicants must be Festival youth volunteers, the scholarship fund has awarded more than $200,000 in scholarships to more than 100 Ducksitters over its twenty-four year history. in their educational endeavors and will continue to do so in Debbye’s honor.

After several terms on the Festival Board of Directors, Debbye stepped into office as President of the Waterfowl Festival board in 2018 with the goal of guiding our event through its 50th year celebration in 2020. She was excited for this opportunity and honor and had many creative ideas for our future. Sadly for the Festival, Debbye’s leadership was cut short by serious illness and her untimely passing earlier in 2020. Her legacy of creativity, insight and ideas will continue to shape the Festival — and many other organizations in the community — for years to come.

“Festival’s Hall of Fame awards offer well-deserved recognition to individuals who’ve consistently, and usually for many years, dedicated their time, effort and energy to making the Festival what it is today – an incredible showcase of wildlife art and valued celebration of our community,” explains Waterfowl Chesapeake Executive Director, Margaret Enloe. “We are humbled by the support that the Turners, Doug and Debbye have given the Festival for all these years and are pleased to honor them with this award.”

Win a YETI Cooler Package and More with the Sportsman’s Raffle

Online tickets are available now or buy tickets in person at the Festival’s Sporting Pavilion. Drawing will be held at 3 p.m on Sunday at the Festival!

Winner does not need to be present at drawing to win and is not required to purchase any goods or services to be entered to win.

Winning packages must be picked up in Easton, MD. The odds of winning will be determined by the number of tickets sold.

Buy Art Online Through the Virtual Art Gallery

Support the Waterfowl Festival While You Shop Online for Art!

This web-based gallery will bring the Festival “home” to art lovers, giving you the opportunity to explore and purchase exclusive art from our many respected artists. The online gallery will support the Festival through the same commission structure that is employed through the in-person Festival but allow you to shop from the comfort of home for special pieces of art – all year long! Visit often and pieces are added every week.

Search and purchase art securely using our shop, the artist will ship the piece directly to you. Please email us at marketing@waterfowlfestival.org if you have any questions or issues with the shop. Thank you for your support of the Waterfowl Festival!

Click Here to Shop!

Waterfowl to Participate in Easton CommUNITY Days

Starting this earlier this year, Waterfowl Chesapeake pulled together a team of eight other Easton-based nonprofits who collectively created a new event for Easton. CommUNITY Day: Easton Arts & Culture Celebration on November 14 and 15 is intended to offer local residents a way to be outside, support local shops and restaurants, and enjoy each other’s company and the fall season.

Each participating organization is offering unique programs during the event to highlight their own work and mission. While some CommUNITY Day activities will be indoors, many will be outside scattered across various locations in Easton to help people remain socially distant and safe. Most happen on Saturday (with some on Sunday) and are free; some do require pre-registration. Every participating organization is following agree-upon COVID-related safety protocols including wearing a mask in indoor spaces, limiting family groups to six people and ensuring groups or individuals are safely six feet apart.

WC programming will offer two days of activities to focused on the winter birds that make our region unique!

All WC activities during the first Community Day: Easton Arts & Culture Celebration will be held at 40 S. Harrison Street, Easton – either in the Waterfowl Building or the lot across the street. All organizations participating in this event have agreed to the following protocols: Masks need to be worn inside, family groups should not be larger than 6 people, and 6′ social distancing will be in place.

SATURDAY

10-11 a.m. Kids’ Decoy Painting (Ages 4-10 suggested)
Family groups will be placed at one table together & limited to no more than 4 children. $15 suggested materials donation. Pre-register and make your contribution here. Note: If this session fills up, we may offer a Sunday session, too!

10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. (ongoing) “The Raptor’s Eye” with Liz Smith
Stop by to visit with Liz Smith and her birds of prey anytime!

10:30 a.m-4 p.m. (ongoing) Maryland Duck Stamp Paintings Exhibit – People’s Choice Voting Open!
Check out some of the finest, original, small paintings of waterfowl and choose your favorite! Artists from across the US are competing to have their work represent the State of Maryland — see if you agree with the experts! (This display will be outside, weather permitting; inside in inclement weather).

12-1 p.m. Drive-in Lecture/Demonstration: “Weathering the Winter” – The What, When and How to Feed Winter Birds with Dr. Wayne Bell
Dr. Bell will talk about the different nutritional needs of various feathered friends, show different kinds of feeders and other tips and tricks to attract birds to your home even if you live in town. No charge. Register here. Walk-up participants welcome too!

2-3 p.m. Calling Young Artists! Jr. Duck Stamp Interest Session with Richard Clifton
Each year young artists compete in the Jr. Duck Stamp Competition and hope their artwork wins to represent our state in the national competition. Creating a small painting that can be reproduced for an even smaller stamp is a challenge. Young artists in grades 7 – 12 are invited to join us to learn about the contest, its rules and regulations from the US Fish & Wildlife Service and get some insights into what it takes to create a winning masterpiece! No charge.

SUNDAY

10:30-2:30pm “The Raptor’s Eye” with Liz Smith
Stop by to visit with Liz Smith and her birds of prey anytime!

12-1pm Drive -in Lecture/Demonstration: “Weathering the Winter” – The What, When and How to Feed Winter Birds with Dr. Wayne Bell
Dr. Bell will talk about the different nutritional needs of various feathered friends, show different kinds of feeders and other tips and tricks to attract birds to your home even if you live in town. No charge. Regsiter here. Walk-up participants welcome too!

Waterfowl Chesapeake has worked with our fellow Easton non-profits to offer this weekend of programs and activities to help support local businesses and provide our community with a celebration of place for the people who live here. So venture downtown to explore opportunities to come together, have fun, learn…all without gathering. Explore the activities of other participating non-profits at www.eastoncommunityday.com

Visit Waterfowl Chesapeake page where you can learn more and pre-register for these exciting “All About the Birds” programming!

Waterfowl Festival Announces Virtual Art Gallery

To connect fine art buyers to the artists they love, Waterfowl Festival has gone online for 2020, creating its first ever Waterfowl Festival Virtual Art Gallery!

The web-based showcase launches here November 1 and will bring the Festival “home” to art lovers, giving them the opportunity to explore and purchase exclusive carvings, sculpture, paintings and photography. While the new online gallery can’t replace the in-person thrill of the traditional Festival, it will support artists by encouraging interest in their work in their home studios and helps provide them with a much-needed way to continue to earn their living during this challenging year.  

“Obviously we would prefer to be holding the Festival in person, “ said WF Board President Kevin Greaney. “However, these difficult times have offered us the time to create this new opportunity to use our website to support our artists while providing a small revenue stream for us. We want folks to be excited about what we are planning for 2021 and at the same time remember the impact that the lack of a Festival in 2020 is having on the local economy”. 

The Virtual Art Gallery will include artists who were juried into the 2020 show.  Each artist is submitting 3-5 pieces that can only be found in the Gallery.  Visitors can shop from the comfort of home and when they make a purchase, the artwork will be shipped directly to them from the artist themselves. Online sales will benefit both the artist and Waterfowl Festival’s mission and future. The Gallery will change often, as pieces are sold, so buyers should check in often!  Pieces will be updated as sold and updated throughout the year as we get closer to the 50th Festival in 2021. Buyers will find works of art at all price points and can make online purchases through the Festival’s new secure, safe e-commerce system.

As of October 5, over 30 artists have signed up to participate in the Virtual Art Gallery, including: Photographers Heather Orkis, Cal Jackson and Tony Masso; Sculptors Ken Newman, Fred Boyer and Ronnie Wells; Carvers Al Jordan and Tom Horn; Painters Linda Besse, Keith Whitelock, Sara Linda Poly and Sandy Alanko to name a few.

Painter Richard Clifton, who recently won the Federal Duck Stamp Contest for 2021-2022 will also be participating and offering up some of his colorful waterfowl paintings for sale. 

Says Greaney, “By engaging our art buyers online and providing an exciting virtual experience for art collectors, we will keep the Festival moving forward toward a terrific 50th Festival next fall!”

Email for more information. 

Maryland State Arts Council Continues to Support Waterfowl Festival

The Maryland State Arts Council has again come through as the largest financial supporter of Waterfowl Festival (WF), providing $60,242 in grant funding for 2020. While there is no Fall event taking place, this funding for the organization’s operations will be used to make some changes and create new online offerings for Festival guests as well as future educational programming.

Waterfowl Festival is grateful to MSAC for more than 15 consecutive years of support in the Folk and Traditional Arts category of their Grants For Organizations program. Their support has been especially critical this year because it enables WF to develop a new website, with additional news features, better social media integration and future secure e-commerce functionality.  It has also allowed the Festival leadership to rethink ways to connect its festival-goers with artists, exhibitors, local businesses and vendors by utilizing some new online features which will be unveiled later this month. As a boost to its operating funds, the grant has allowed staff to continue working during the COVID-19 crisis by creating a critical revenue source that will be missing since the Festival was cancelled for 2020.

The staff, board and volunteers will continue to plan for the 50th Festival in November of 2021 to make it as great, and even better, than ever. 

“We are incredibly grateful to the Maryland State Arts Council for their continued support and recognition of the importance of arts organizations, especially this year,” said Executive Director of Waterfowl Chesapeake, Margaret Enloe. “They understand that arts organizations are struggling in the wake of closings and cancellations and that it takes time and resources to rethink our ways of working. We are incredibly grateful that MSAC supports us and appreciative of their commitment to all kinds of ‘art’ that will be vital to our collective, community recovery.”

The Future of Waterfowl Habitat is in Our Hands

“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.”
-Helen Keller

2020 has been extraordinary and it has certainly not been the half-century anniversary year we anticipated. Who would have believed something could’ve caused us to cancel our 50th Waterfowl Festival?! It was a decision none of us wanted to make. We believe it was the right one for the community in the long term and the only choice if our organization is to survive into the next half century.

With the postponement of our 50th Waterfowl Festival to November 2021 – more than a year away – your financial support for our critical community and conservation programs is more important than ever before!

This ‘break’ is actually an exciting time of opportunity for us. We are reimagining various aspects of our work and exploring different programs and activities to showcase our community and conservation mission. These educational and community events – some virtual, some in-person – will engage people in our history and conservation efforts. They will be repeatable so that we can offer them next fall, too, leading up the 50th Festival. Your gift to this year’s annual fund will support Waterfowl’s work to share our heritage and love for our water birds.

Our commitment to waterfowl conservation continues, too! This past fall, after years in the works, Ducks Unlimited restored a 25-acre tract at Blackwater Refuge, converting a scrubby marsh to a food-rich wetland for wintering ducks. Waterfowl Chesapeake’s funds, derived from Festival proceeds, served as leverage to gain federal funding essential for this project. Look south from the Harriett Tubman Visitors Center to see our dollars ‘growing’ food for waterfowl!  A gift to the annual fund supports our Community in Conservation grants and projects like this.

The Waterfowl Festival is a critical source of funding to support all of our projects, programs and our ongoing operations.

The Festival may be postponed, but the need for conservation of our iconic outdoor spaces – for us and for the birds we love – is as important as ever.

A gift to the Waterfowl Annual Fund will help us continue to make our work possible and can be made securely online at www.WaterfowlChesapeake.org/SupportConservationNow. We would be grateful if you’d consider an increased gift this year since, without the Festival, our need is greater than usual.  Now more than ever, we all need the outdoors.

As we use this time to re-imagine various aspects of our work and plan for alternate fall programming to engage people in our history and conservation mission, we hope we can count on your continued support.

Click here to access our secure giving portal and make your Annual Fund gift online today!

50th Waterfowl Festival Postponed Until 2021

Due to the continued uncertainty regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the Waterfowl Festival’s 50th celebration will be moved to 2021

For the first time in its history, the iconic Waterfowl Festival that draws 15,000+ people to Easton, Maryland each year will not be held this November – at least in its usual form. Instead, the Festival, along with conservation partner Waterfowl Chesapeake, will devote their energies to developing some new plans for this fall, including virtual programming that brings people together to celebrate Eastern Shore heritage, culture and bird life. The 50th Festival will be held in its traditional style in November 2021.

“All of us want the Festival to take place as usual,” said Festival Board President, Kevin Greaney, “but uncertainty about the future means we must rethink how we are going to safely host an event, especially one of this size”. He explains, “Our strength is in the relationships we have and the face-to-face experiences we offer for artists, vendors and visitors. All our people – and especially our volunteer leaders and supporters who make Festival possible – need to feel confident and safe. So instead of a big event, we are planning for other programs that can still create connections and celebrate our community.”

Planning for the town-wide Festival begins annually each February with many commitments already made by June. By this time each year, the fine artists have been selected and the Featured Artist has been announced. The annual featured art piece, whether a painting or sculpture, has been completed and art buyers are beginning to take interest. Most of the three hundred vendors, exhibitors and artists have been invited and have made travel plans and commitments. The Festival’s forty volunteer Committee Chairs have kept all of these processes moving forward for the year, however, much has also been on hold and still remains to be done due to COVID-19.

“We’ve surveyed many of our stakeholders and what we heard overall is how they share our desire to have the Festival,” explained Greaney. “And simultaneously, our people – especially our huge corps of leadership and weekend volunteers who make the Festival work — are still very concerned about the fall and a resurgence of COVID19. Next year, we will host the 50th Festival with the vitality, hospitality and excitement that people have come to expect, along with a few surprises.”

Since 1971, Waterfowl Festival has seen incredible change and overcome challenges – from the internet to the Great Recession – and weathered it all because its strength comes from the dedication, support and love of the Eastern Shore community. It continues to be a cherished annual tradition and the Eastern Shore’s “Homecoming” which now hosts its fourth generation of dedicated families and guests.

“I applaud the Waterfowl organization for its forward thinking and flexible leadership,” says 2019 Featured Artist Nancy Tankersley. “As an artist, it is very disappointing to see yet another event cancelled, but this 50th anniversary is so important that it deserves 100% attention and shouldn’t be overshadowed by the risks of going forward with a physical event. I think the possibilities in virtual offerings are great, and a way for the artist to keep working and creating new work. If a collector is familiar with an artist’s work, they will feel comfortable purchasing online and will continue to support the Waterfowl Festival in this way.”

The Festival has also continued to generate millions of dollars in economic impact to Talbot County annually and has made significant contributions to waterfowl conservation projects. In 2019, the Festival visitors who travelled to Easton for the Waterfowl weekend generated $2.6 million in annual economic impact to Talbot County through shopping, lodging and travel.

“This has been a tough time for everyone, full of difficult choices,” said Margaret Enloe, Executive Director for Waterfowl Chesapeake. “This decision can feel like a step backward, however we see it as an opportunity to try new things, to grow and change. I have every confidence that we will emerge stronger and better. I expect that the 50th Festival in 2021 will be an even more incredible community celebration of the arts and our Eastern Shore heritage, one more vibrant than we could’ve ever imagined.”