With heavy hearts the Bohemia Mining Days board members voted yesterday to cancel what would have been the 61^st Annual festival, scheduled for July 16-18.

The global coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented in its impact to individuals, families and businesses of all sizes.  Since 1959, Cottage Grove business owners have faithfully and generously supported our town’s largest event of the year.  Bohemia Mining Days has become a much anticipated summer tradition for both residents and visitors and serves as an economic boost to our community.

The uncertainty of when Gov. Kate Brown’s mandated social distancing order can safely be lifted, combined with the severe financial impact the order continues to have on business owners and festival-goers alike, makes producing an event of any size this year financially impossible for us.

We are grateful to the following festival sponsors that have allowed us to use their annual BMD 2020 contribution for vital administrative purposes this year to ensure the future of our festival.  They are: Banner Bank, CG Community Foundation (Kris Woodard Fund), Emerald People’s Utility District, Lane Electric Cooperative, Pacific Power, and Umpqua Bank.

We thank the members of our amazing production team and our dedicated volunteers for the important behind the scenes work they have done for the past 60 years to create a gift we give to ourselves every summer.

In other board business, Don Williams was elected as the new BMD President.  Williams served as BMD President from 1979-1984.  He currently serves as president of the Bohemia Heritage Association, which raises money for the cultural and educational activities we offer during the celebration.

“I’m honored to step back into the presidency of this community organization that brings so much pleasure to thousands of people each summer,” Williams said.  “We accepted the resignation of outgoing president Cathy Simmons with great appreciation of her exemplary leadership within our organization for the past seven years.  Our decision to cancel BMD 2020 came after much soul searching and examining the facts with a cloudy crystal ball.  We now look forward to BMD 2021 and offer our prayers and blessings to our sponsors, volunteers, and festival-goers for a speedy end to this shared nightmare!”