Vermont Quilt Festival Canceled; Future in Jeopardy 

A beloved Vermont event could be coming to an unceremonious end.

The Vermont Quilt Festival announced over the weekend that it was canceling what would have been its 45th annual show this June because of money problems tied to a lack of vendors.

Organizers say the longtime event could be gone for good. “Right now, I don’t see a way out of this,” said Marti DelNevo, chair of the nonprofit that runs the festival.

The festival, launched in 1977, had grown into a three-day extravaganza that drew thousands of visitors to the Essex fairgrounds pre-pandemic. But COVID-19 repeatedly disrupted the event — it was canceled in 2020, held virtually in 2021 and then canceled again last year — and the nonprofit entered this year on shaky financial ground.

Organizers hoped a successful 2023 event would bring stability. Yet by February, they realized they were falling short. The festival costs roughly $350,000 to put on each year — expenses that are largely covered by income from vendors, who pay to participate. But many longtime exhibitors had retired during the pandemic or were cutting back on their travel.

A last-minute push to recruit more vendors this spring wasn't enough: The nonprofit still ended April staring down a shortfall of $70,000 to $90,000, far more than ticket sales could cover.

"The gap was too large to take the risk," DelNevo said.

On Sunday, six weeks before the event was scheduled to take place, organizers pulled the plug. A Facebook post announcing the news drew hundreds of comments, many from out-of-staters who fondly recalled visiting the show at some point during its nearly half-century run.

The nonprofit began issuing refunds on Monday, and DelNevo hoped to complete that process within the next few weeks.

From there, the nonprofit board will continue to meet, though it's unclear for how much longer.

"I’m not hopeful," DelNevo said of the festival's future.