No Spring Fling, but city plans summer activities

Mar. 5—MOULTRIE, Ga. — The coronavirus pandemic is causing the City of Moultrie to reimagine another of its signature events.

Spring Fling will not be held this year, but the city is working with the Colquitt County Arts Center and others to plan smaller activities through the summer to make downtown an enjoyable place to visit.

The situation is very similar to the way Lights! Lights! went from a single, large event on Thanksgiving night to a week-long celebration with smaller crowds back in November.

The decision was mostly made during a work session of the Moultrie City Council Feb. 16, but the city staff was examining options for other activities before announcing it. At that meeting, City Manager Pete Dillard said he was waiting to see how COVID cases and vaccinations looked at the end of the month, but Mayor Bill McIntosh pointed out the end of the month was only 12 days away at that point, so it seemed unlikely there would be a major improvement in that short time.

The announcement was made official at the March 2 council meeting.

Amy Johnson, the city's marketing and Main Street director, told council members March 2 that summer activities are planned to encourage people to "make memories downtown."

The Arts Center will provide five professional artists who will be making canvas murals that can be hung from downtown buildings, Johnson said. Themes of the murals will be agriculture, fishing, wildlife, etc.

Johnson estimated the murals will be ready in six to eight weeks, and they'll remain in place a couple of months. The city will offer guided tours, she said.

A community mural is proposed for the breezeway where the Sportsman restaurant once stood. The restaurant closed in December 2003 and had been vacant ever since. Downtown Moultrie Tomorrow has nearly finished a project to turn the space into a "pocket park."

The community mural will be an opportunity for community members — anyone who wants to — to paint images on the canvas mural.

"Once it's complete, people in the community will have done it together," Johnson said.

During the Christmas season, the city placed cutouts where people could have their photos taken throughout downtown. Johnson called them "Instagrammable moments." New cutouts — without the Christmas theme — are planned for the summer.

The city is also collaborating with local artists on wraps to go around light poles downtown, Johnson said, although she said it was too early to have any details. The city's getting prices now for new downtown banners too.

Spring Fling traditionally draws thousands of people to the downtown area on the third weekend in April, but in the age of the coronavirus, the city wants to avoid clusters that could encourage viral spread.

"Instead of that one shot-in-the-arm event, we're trying to draw it out," Johnson said.

Spring Fling began in 2002 as the new incarnation of Festival on the Square, an arts festival that had been sponsored by the Colquitt County Arts Center since the 1980s.

Last year, the event was canceled entirely when the pandemic began.

Johnson said Tuesday that she believes vaccinations will make it safe for the city to resume events this fall.