With a tear in our eye the Festival Committee announces the cancellation of the 2020 Huron Fringe Birding Festival.

We will miss celebrating birds with you this year, but right now the focus must be on what is most important – your personal health and safety, and that of your family, your friends and your community.

In the meantime, nature’s spectacular spring show will go on across Ontario and beyond. Wherever you are, birds will come to you in their journey north. We wish you good birding in the safe sanctuary of your own backyard. Birding provides the perfect opportunity to celebrate spring migration even in these weeks of self-isolating and social distancing. We are so lucky to be birders, able to continue birding in some fashion throughout this seclusion.

We want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the Leaders and Presenters who were so committed to delivering their usual stellar events and presentations. We hope to see them all next year! We want to thank this year’s team of Event Coordinators who had stepped up to volunteer. We also want to acknowledge our sponsors whose generosity supports our Festival planning and preparations. We encourage you to support them in turn.

As of this notification there will certainly be no 2020 Festival as planned. But follow us on Facebook or check our website for updates from the Festival Committee.

And finally, as a show of our appreciation for our Festival registrants, we will be pulling a name from ‘the hat’ for one complimentary Festival weekend in 2021!

For details on your Festival Fee and Park reservation refunds, see below.

So, until we cross paths again, to all of you, from all of us on the Festival Committee - Be Safe, Stay Healthy, Keep Birding.

Festival Registration Fee Refund:

You will be receiving a full refund of your Registration fee; our usual Administration fee is waived. That said, this will take time as the Festival Committee are working under the constraints of social isolating and distancing protocols in preparing the refund packages. We ask for your patience.

We will mail refunds in the form of a cheque. One cheque will be sent to the ‘payee’ for each account. If you paid on behalf of additional attendees, we will include a breakdown of the refund amount owed to each attendee.

Park Accommodation Refund:

If the Park remains closed through the duration of the Festival dates it is likely they will continue their current policy of providing a full refund. However, if the Parks reopen and you have not cancelled your reservation, normal Park cancellation policies may apply as per the information on their website: www.ontarioparks.com/reservations/penalties

The Huron Fringe Birding Festival is a birding and nature event which runs for two four-day weekends. The Festival is sponsored by the Friends of MacGregor Point Park. Festival headquarters are at the Visitor Centre at MacGregor Point Provincial Park, 1593 Bruce Road 33, Port Elgin, Ontario N0H 2C5. The registrar can be reached at [email protected] or 519-375-1889. www.huronfringebirdingfestival.ca or www.hfbf.ca

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source: media release, Huron Fringe Birding Festival