PRINCETON, WV (WOAY) – Princeton’s eighth annual Downtown Countdown concluded last night, it had segments featuring local businesses, artists and much more.
Organizer of the Downtown Countdown Lori McKinney says that featuring local artists has always been a staple of the tradition.
“There’s just an unbelievable array of talent. Really anywhere you go in the world there’s just creative people right in your backyard. And it’s always really nice to showcase that. And for people to tune in to original music and original artistry right in their community, I think people really enjoyed those performances,” McKinney said.
The Countdown highlighted many of the local businesses in Princeton, giving them a great deal of support, something McKinney says is especially important right now.
“I know a lot of people have really understood how important local business is right now. So we got to check in with a lot of people’s favorite downtown businesses. So that was really nice, I’m sure a lot of people enjoyed that.”
Typically the Downtown Countdown invites the entire community out to participate, but this one was all filmed beforehand to keep people safe. Thankfully McKinney and other local organizers already film many of their events, so making the transition to a virtual broadcast wasn’t too troublesome.
‘We’ve always intended to do a live broadcast from our live events. So that’s the reason we were able to kind of pivot into this somewhat gracefully back in March.”
Although this event didn’t have traditional community involvement, McKinney says the chance to see it virtually on your TV still allowed patrons to enjoy it with their friends and family. She added that going virtual this year was a necessity to keep everyone safe.
“It’s extremely important to be extra, extra safe. And even if you think you know this might be okay, don’t take that chance. Because that one person that is not gonna be okay from contracting the virus, we have to do our part as citizens to protect them.”
Organizers said that future events could involve some kind of hybrid of in-person and streaming options.
