August 4, 2020

NQC Board of Directors Addresses Coronavirus Concerns for 2020 Event

The NQC Board of Directors announced today plans for NQC 2020, & provisional plans if NQC 2020 is not allowed to take place as scheduled due to  state and government orders.

If state orders allow, NQC 2020 will occur as scheduled. However, if state orders for September include any kind of social distancing, it will mean that NQC 2020 will have to be suspended.
If NQC 2020 is suspended, due to state orders, NQC will move forward with an alternative event on the same dates. This event will be the NQC Fall Festival.
Further information about the event and logistics are as follows:
The NQC Fall Festival will take place September 27 – October 3, 2020 if social distancing orders prevent NQC 2020 from occurring
The LeConte Center will be set with 1,500 chairs socially distanced 6’ apart by pairs
The main stage of the Fall Festival will be set up at one end instead of in the round.
Admission for the NQC Fall Festival will be sold on a first come, first serve basis. The event is currently on sale and will be a general admission event.
NQC recommends people who know they will be in Pigeon Forge for NQC week to purchase Fall Festival tickets now. If state orders allow NQC, all NQC Fall Festival admissions will be refunded.
If the NQC Fall Festival occurs, NQC customers will either have their admission refunded or applied to next year.  It will be each customer’s choice.
Artists who perform in the Fall Festival will have displays set up in the Greenbriar ballroom, and the displays will be sufficiently distanced apart.  There is plentiful space in the Greenbriar to allow for distancing between and in front of the displays.
The NQC Fan Festival will feature around 10 artists per night For either NQC or NQC Fall Festival, a live only webcast will be made available to subscribers.
“We did not want to preemptively suspend NQC in advance of the state orders being issued for September,” states Clarke Beasley, NQC Executive Vice President. “However, if state orders prevents NQC from occuring as planned, we wanted to have an alternative ready to go that would be in compliance with all existing state orders for the benefit of NQC attendees as well as the NQC artists.”
A complete schedule of the NQC Fall Festival option is available on www.nqconline.com.
ABOUT NQC:
NQC – the National Quartet Convention – was founded in 1957 by gospel music legend and former backup vocalist for Elvis Presley, J.D. Sumner who co-produced the event with James Blackwood. The annual convention was moved in later years to Nashville, TN and then to Louisville, KY where it was held for 20 years