A year ago, we were busy pouring candles and putting the finishing touches on our set-up for our first appearance at the Kimmswick Apple Butter Festival.
This year, though, there will be no Kimmswick Apple Butter Festival.
And while that is a setback for us, the cancellation of this month’s festival due to the coronavirus pandemic has created a financial crisis for the historic city located near the banks of the Mississippi River in northern Jefferson County.
“We have explored all avenues of relief; federal, state and county funding to no avail. Kimmswick needs $200,000.00, to survive in 2021. We will have no employees or city services, without outside help.”
Those are the words of Mayor Phil Stang in a plea for donations on the city’s website.
The cancellation of the 2020 Kimmswick Apple Butter Festival follows back-to-back cancellations of its annual Strawberry Festival — first in 2019 due to nearby flooding and safety concerns, and in 2020 because of the coronavirus.
And a year ago, steady rains all but washed out the first day — traditionally the busiest — of the Apple Butter Festival.
These two festivals, which bring tens of thousands of visitors to the city on two weekends per year, also bring dollars to City Hall — as much as 80 percent of the city’s revenue stream, Stang wrote in his plea for donations.
“2020 has been disastrous. … By year’s end, Kimmswick will, for all practical purposes, be out of money,” Stang wrote.
Please consider joining us in supporting the City of Kimmswick.
If you’d like to donate directly to the city, you can do so here.
And for each of our Apple Butter candles sold online through Monday, Nov. 30, Kimmswick Candle Co. will donate $5 to the city’s fundraising efforts.
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