Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lewis and Clark Foundation has decided to cancel the 2020 Lewis and Clark Festival, which was scheduled for June 19-21. The Lewis and Clark Festival has been an anticipated annual event for 30 years, since 1989.

With public safety concerns, the foundation determined that social distancing guidelines would be difficult to implement at such an event with large crowds of people.

“Cancelling the Lewis and Clark Festival was a very difficult decision to make, but the Foundation’s board of directors concluded that it was the right thing to do this year, with health concerns related to the pandemic” Jay Russell, foundation executive director, said in a release.

He said that while the event is held outdoors in Gibson Park, “we anticipate large crowds and gatherings that would make it potentially unsafe.”

Russell said that the festival is on track to return next year, from June 18 – 20, 2021, and is free to the public. The 2021 Festival will feature many activities, including Native American dancers and drummers, a Native tipi encampment, and Lewis and Clark Honor Guard programs, including a black powder rifle demonstration.

Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, along with Sacagawea and the Corps of Discovery, spent nearly a month in the Great Falls area in June of 1805, having encountered one of their biggest obstacles – the series of waterfalls known as the Great Falls of the Missouri. The Lewis and Clark Festival re-creates the adventures and hardships of life in the 1805 frontier encountered by the Corps of Discovery, according to the foundation.

For more information call the Lewis and Clark Foundation at 406-452-5661.