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Date: 4/27/2021
SOUTHAMPTON – After being canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual Celebrate Southampton event will officially return on Aug. 13 and 14.
According to the Celebrate Southampton Facebook page, there will be music at Conant Park on Aug. 13 put together by the Southampton Free Concert Series. On Aug. 14, there will be a Memory Hour from 10 to 11 a.m., and a town picnic with activities from 12 to 4 p.m.
Becky Nimmons, who is the co-chair and organizer of the event with Tammy Walunas, told Reminder Publishing that a lot of the initial planning is already done since the town already did a lot of pre-planning prior to the 2020 Celebrate Southampton that never happened.
The organizers recently had a meeting with other town groups and talked about how they can plan differently. “We took our old plan and modified it a little bit,” said Nimmons. “We were able to keep some activities.”
Nimmons added that the organizers may modify the plan a little bit more as they head towards August, depending on what the situation is surrounding COVID-19. “We have a plan A and a plan B,” she added.
While much of the event is still in the planning stages, Nimmons detailed some of what could happen across the two days. The local church, Southampton Congregational, would like to do something with food for the concert on Aug. 13. “That’s one of the plan B things,” said Nimmons. “They’re trying to figure out what they could do, and if they would like to do something.”
On the morning of Aug. 14, the Memory Hour will occur at a location that still has to be determined, according to Nimmons. The picnic, along with live performances, will occur that afternoon at Conant Park. The organizers are currently looking for local performers or people that just want to sing.
“We had the high school kids a few years back do improvisation,” said Nimmons. “So it’s just a mix of different performances throughout the day.”
The organizers are also working with American Legion Post 168 to incorporate the “Citizen of the Year” event, which usually takes place during the Memorial Day Parade. The parade will not be happening this year due to COVID-19, however, so the Citizen of the Year winner will most likely be announced during celebrate Southampton.
Nimmons said that they probably will not be able to do many food-related events like a cookoff or a bakeoff, and people will need to bring their own picnic lunch for the afternoon.
The Celebrate Southampton Facebook page features a link to donate or sponsor the event this year. “We hadn’t done raffles before, and it’s something that we want to try and do this year,” said Nimmons. “We already have a few raffle items collected.”
The sponsorships, according to Nimmons, are there to help with the costs of the event so the organizers can acquire tents, banners and other items. “With the raffles, we’re not looking to make a lot money,” said Nimmons. “We just need to sustain the event itself.”
For more information and updates on the event, visit the Celebrate Southampton Facebook page, which is listed here: https://www.facebook.com/celebratesouthampton01073/?ref=page_internal. People can also send an email with any questions to clarkchapman1827@gmail.com. The Southampton Historical Society is sponsoring this event.