New Date

• September 26th, 2020
• 11am to 5PM
• Fair Market
• Austin, TX

Over the last few weeks we have tried to continue moving forward with the Texas Woodworking Festival as we watched other local gatherings and similar woodworking events cancel all around us. We wanted to make sure that we were making the right decision based on the facts. We have been speaking to attorneys, city advisors, event managers and health officials to keep ourselves as knowledgeable about the situation as possible. Now, with confirmed cases here in Austin and surrounding cities we have decided it was best to postpone. 

Safety

Safety of our exhibitors and attendees is very important to us. It was for this reason that we took our time to evaluate every possibility: Cancellation, postponement and rescheduling, a remote conference, smaller local events, or just moving forward as normal. We strongly believe that with the rapidly changing coronavirus situation that it was just not possible for us to run a safe and successful event.

The premise of the Texas Woodworking Festival is to get the Texas woodworking community together for a day of food, drinks and all things woodworking. It is meant to be a fun time focused on woodworking. We feel that in this novel, rapidly changing situation the focus should be on the safety of at-risk individuals and not woodworking. The City of Austin has had its first official cases of COVID19 with surrounding cities announcing new cases as well. Although, we were prepared to take every precaution to keep attendees safe we believe now that it would be irresponsible of us to move forward.

Quality of the Event

The Texas Woodworking Festival prides itself on being a fun event showcasing furniture makers, tool manufacturers, lumber yards, content creators and more. Due to many companies restricting travel for their employees it was evident that we would lose several exhibitors by continuing forward. We want to make sure that attendees are getting the best experience possible for their tickets. We felt that if we postponed, we would be more likely to provide a better event.

Financial

Most events are not talking about this but I feel that it’s important to be fully transparent. The Texas Woodworking Festival is a fundraiser that helps to pay for a large portion of the Austin School of Furniture and Designs expenses. With growing uncertainty and fear of a long-lasting pandemic it was becoming clear that our attendance was going to be lower than we hoped. The school is dependent on the funds made from the festival and does not have the ability to handle a large loss. Postponement, gives us a chance to still raise a little money in support of the Austin School of Furniture and the Texas Woodworking Community.

Next Steps

We are rescheduling the Texas Woodworking Festival to September 26th. All tickets previously purchased are still valid. All exhibitors and sponsors will carry over to the new date as long as they are available. If you purchased a ticket already and the new date does not work for you, we will fully refund your money. BUT, we kindly ask that you would consider not asking for a refund and donating the value of the ticket to the festival to help support the Austin School of Furniture and Design.