Small Town Revival: Maple Syrup Festival Comes Back After COVID Cancellation Last Year

Sources Of Small Town Pride Are Returning As Pandemic Inches Closer To Ending

VERGAS, Minn. – With vaccination rates going up and life getting closer to normal, we’re seeing how people are getting back on with their life.
And this spring, small towns in our region are getting back events that helped bring them together.

I bring you to Vergas, Minnesota and the annual Maple Syrup Fest on Saturday. They cancelled the festival last year because of COVID. But it’s back, with people coming from all around for pancakes with locally-made syrup, a 5k race to burn calories before pancakes, and deals at local shops gearing up for the summer.
They did make a few changes. They offered drive-thru pancakes and limited capacity in the Vergas Event Center to 150 people.
But Linda Krabbenhoft with the Vergas Lions says about 400 people came for pancakes on Saturday.
That’s a couple hundred less than before the pandemic, but with the uncertainty of the last year, she’s happy to see this many people come together.

“We didn’t know what to expect.”, she says. “But we’re really overwhelmed with the response from the community. And what we hear from the people in the community, coming through the line as we go around and visit with them, is that they’re ready to get out.”

The Vergas Lions and Vergas Community club are using money raised from this year’s Maple Syrup Festival to help fund improvements to the Event Center, a new veterans memorial, and a program to provide glasses for local students in need.