Sand Bass Festival is a go; responses are mixed

****Update**** After press time of the release of this article, The Madill Record received news that the 2020 Sand Bass Festival has been cancelled. They plan on hosting one in June 2021.

The Sand Bass Festival is a much-loved festival that typically occurs the first week of June annually.

The festival that is steeped in Marshall County history was forced to switch gears this year due to the pandemic.

Even though many festivities are canceled the rest of the year, the Sand Bass Festival got a green light for August 2020.

The festival is slotted to occur August 4 through August 8.

Donny Raley said they monitored the situation and took the cue to continue from the governor.

“[There were] no orders from the governor saying not to,” Raley said.

The tradition continues with the talent contest on Monday, August 3 with a few key differences.

It will be held at the Madill Elementary Auditorium, music tracks must be on a flash drive with the one back up track only – no cell phones will be allowed for back up tracks. If playing guitar, the contestant must provide their own cables and amp.

The nights are jam packed with music like it is every year.

On Tuesday, August 4, the Star Band will play. August 5 has Austin French for a lineup. August 6 is Tristan Marez with Frank Ray playing August 7.

The main attraction will be Neal McCoy on August 8.

Even though this festival is loved by many residents and they have attended every year, the responses for attending are mixed.

Many residents took to Facebook to respond to the event. One poster said he is going because he knows some of the talent. “This is your hometown. My friends band is playing there on Tuesday Aug 4. You want to dance, I would love to take the day off and take you there to dance.”

“I wanna go Tuesday for sure,” said another poster. Two posters tagged each

Two posters tagged each other questioning if they should go.

“Are we going,” one poster asked. “We should go,” replied the friend.

One Facebook poster used the Facebook post to state her fears about attending such an event during the pandemic.

“I love going to Sandbass festival but this year I am taking the safe route. Not Going. Everyone stay safe.”