Dreams Park update opens tourism season

By KEVIN LIMITI• Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

The summer tourism season begins Memorial Day weekend, with businesses and attractions getting set for a better year now that COVID is beginning to dissipate.

After a run of team cancellations earlier in the year, the Dreams Park baseball camp announced new protocols Monday, May 24.

The baseball camp in Hartwick Seminary will open Friday, July 23, with no restrictions on social distancing or mask wearing. However, they will be requiring a vaccine for all participating children and adults.

Dreams Park said on their website that the 2021 season would be the “first step toward a full reopening in 2022.”

Todd Kenyon, director of communications at the Fenimore Art Museum, said that he was optimistic about the upcoming summer and fall seasons.

“There’s always the unknown, but I can feel that people want to get out,” Kenyon said. “I’m hopeful they visit Cooperstown.”

The Fenimore is still requiring masks and social distancing indoors but outdoors, patrons will not need to be masked as long as they maintain social distancing.

The Fenimore is opening its summer season on Saturday, May 29, with an exhibit from pop artist Keith Haring called “Radiant Vision.”

The Glimmerglass Festival is also adapting to the return of less COVID restrictions by expanding its capacity through the sale of festival squares and tables.

Proof of either a vaccination or negative COVID test will be necessary in order to attend, according to the Festval’s website.

Events being hosted at the Glimmerglass festival include the operas, “Il Trovatore,” “Songbird,” “Gods and Mortals” and “The Magic Flute.”

Cooperstown All Star Village in West Oneonta will be open with extra precautions against COVID including providing a negative COVID test 72 hours before arriving or proof of a COVID vaccine.

All public indoor facilities will require masks and social distancing however outdoors will only require social distancing.

Masks are to be worn in the dugouts. Pin trading will be allowed only outside and they recommend wearing a batting glove.

The Baseball Hall of Fame is opening with expanded summer hours starting Sunday, May 30, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., although the Hall of Fame’s Bullpen Theater, Learning Center and Sandlot Kids Clubhouse will remained closed.

Neoclassical mansion Hyde Hall is also opening its doors with COVID guidelines Saturday, May 29, for events, tours and concerts.

The mansion is going to be showing 19th-century clothing include a butler’s uniform, a gown dated in the 1830s, a livery uniform and a hunting outfit in a Flash Exhibit.

The exhibit will run from May 29, to Sunday, June 13.

Other events include a ghost hunt, a German singspiel, Chatham Baroque and Robin and Linda Williams. Tours will run 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. until Sunday, Oct. 31.

Go to www.hydehall.org for more information