You know the drill: Two more Milwaukee summer festivals, Center Street Daze Festival and the MKE Short Film Fest, have canceled their 2020 events. Center Street Daze was set for August 8; the MKE Short Film Fest was set for September 11-12. The latter will stage a virtual “best of” festival instead.
Here’s the message from Center Street Daze:
The coordinators of Center Street Daze Festival made the difficult decision of canceling in 2020. The community’s health and safety are of utmost importance. We recognize that we do not know what stage we’ll be at in August and are open to and encourage smaller celebrations and events as allowed per the Wisconsin state health department. We will miss you and look forward to a most robust 2021 on the street.
And here’s the press release from the MKE Short Film Fest:
MKE Short Film Fest, named “Best Local Festival” by Moviemaker Magazine, sponsored by the Milwaukee Independent Film Society, is canceling our live festival on Sept 11th and 12th, 2020. This will also include our fan favorite program, Voices Heard. With uncertainty about life during this COVID-19 pandemic, we feel that we can not put on an event effectively when we just don’t know what lies ahead in just a few short months. For the safety of the public, fellow filmmakers, and guests of the festival we need to cancel the live event. We are also uncertain if our venue will be open in September.
What will happen on that weekend is that the 22nd Annual Milwaukee Short Film Festival will be a virtual “Best of” edition. Previous festival films will be available on our facebook and twitter accounts. We will also have information on the sponsors who have been with us through the years. These local businesses have struggled themselves during this pandemic, and we wish them the very best during these times.
For filmmakers that have submitted to our festival this season, we will hold their films for next year’s live event. Everything regarding those submissions will remain in place for next season, and we’ll extend the deadlines to reflect that deadline for next season. We’ll keep the submission rate as is for the duration of the submission process, through Spring, 2021, and not use the final deadline submission rate increase.
So please, stay safe, stay at home and enjoy films you may have missed from previous festivals.
Oh, and Polish Fest officially canceled its previously postponed festival. Sigh.