Another popular event in the county has been shelved.

While residents are adjusting to the state’s green phase with restaurants reopening and retail spaces full, events around the county have largely been canceled due to COVID-19.

Evans City’s Oktoberfest wasn’t spared.

The annual celebration of the borough’s German heritage joined Zelienople’s Horse Trading Days and Cranberry Township’s Community Days when organizers canceled last month in view of the pandemic.

“It’s with regrets that we do this,” Marlene Domhoff, Oktoberfest co-chairwoman said. “I just don’t think that there’s any choice.”

Domhoff said this year’s event was gearing up to be one of the best, with more entertainment vendors and planning well underway by March, when organizers put the festivities on hold. But with a number of other events canceled throughout the region, Domhoff said they saw the writing on the wall.

“With the coronavirus, I don’t know that anything’s still going on in the county,” she said. “And now it’s picking up again, getting worse, not better.”

Organizers said the 2019 Evans City Oktoberfest was its best yet, and look forward to its return in September 2021.

“We plan for it to be bigger and better next year,” Domhoff said.