“I feel absolutely safe,” said Jocelyn Rudd, a carnival worker from the Grand Rapids area. While her employer had required all workers to remain masked, the majority of fairgoers she interacted with were unmasked in a county that is below the state average for adults who are fully vaccinated. (36 percent, compared to 46 for the state, according to the Bridge Michigan vaccine tracker).
Children – some masked, some not – play on a slide at the Durand Railroad Days Festival. (Bridge photo by Dale Young)
Last spring, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, local governments and events committees agonized over whether to cancel long-planned festivals and parades, almost universally opting to call off the festivities by the time summer 2020 rolled around. This season has presented a host of new variables to weigh: Michigan’s springtime surge in cases, sluggish vaccine rates in some counties, residents impatient to return to regular life.