A popular Owego festival is being scratched for the second year due to uncertainty over the COVID-19 pandemic. Historic Owego Marketplace, a nonprofit organization that promotes the village as a retail and cultural center, organizes the annual Strawberry Festival. The organization's board of directors has decided this year's festival, planned for June, would once again be canceled. Organizers said the major annual event requires months of planning, financial commitments, mass gathering permits, security and sanitation costs, and insurance fees. With lingering effects from the pandemic still creating uncertainty, the Historic Owego Marketplace board unanimously voted to hold off on the festival until next year.