With ‘heavy heart,’ Winterfest cancels parade, joining other festivities lost to COVID-19
The South Florida holiday season has become considerably less festive.
Despite it being about three to four months out, blame a spate of cancellations on the COVID-19 pandemic.
The latest to cancel: the 2020 Seminole Hard Rock Winterfest Boat Parade that was to be held in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, Dec. 12.
Organizers at Winterfest’s headquarters in Fort Lauderdale said they tried to ease crowd concerns given that social distancing is one means to combat the coronavirus, but with a “heavy heart” had to come to a painful decision.
That decision was by a unanimous vote of the Winterfest Board of Directors on Monday to forgo the 2020 boat parade. Related Winterfest live events will also be canceled this year.
“Our team, partners and community supporters were very hopeful for the traditional holiday boat parade to continue in December,” Lisa Scott-Founds, president and CEO of Winterfest Inc., said in a statement. “This was a very difficult decision, but we are being proactive and socially responsible for the health and safety of our community. That is our top priority.”
The focus will shift now to the 50th Anniversary Year Boat Parade event in December 2021. The first Winterfest Boat Parade was in December 1971.
Fans hoping to get a taste of the colorful flotilla of decorated yachts will have to do what they have been largely doing since March: watch TV at home.
A television special is on tap via a “Best of the Parade: Home for the Holidays” themed special to air on WSVN-7 in December. The special will be a retrospective look at previous editions with an eye to the 50th. A date is coming and the TV show will re-air on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Fox Sports Sun will also broadcast the re-airings.
Winterfest also plans online interactive events, as well as its annual online auction. Details at winterfestparade.com.
No Fantasy Fest, Christmas Pageant
The move comes after earlier announcements of events that will no longer happen due to the coronavirus, which is particularly active in South Florida compared to the rest of the state.
Fantasy Fest, Key West’s annual 10-day celebration, was scheduled for a “Roaring 20s and Future Fictions” theme on Oct. 16-25 but it was canceled in July.
It’s the first time a Fantasy Fest has been canceled. In 2005, after Hurricane Wilma, the event was postponed.
One event that was canceled, but not related to COVID, was the 36-year-old Fort Lauderdale Christmas Pageant. The event, hosted by First Baptist Church Fort Lauderdale, decided earlier this year, pre-coronavirus, to cancel its event and there are no plans to resume it at this time, according to the Sun Sentinel.
That November-December pageant sold 30,000 tickets in 2019, according to the Sentinel.
