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‘We just have no guarantees of what’s going to happen’

Green Cove Springs officials explain while RiverFest was canceled

By Bruce Hope bruce@opcfla.com
Posted 4/1/20

GREEN COVE SPRINGS – The annual Green Cove Springs RiverFest Memorial Day festivities became the latest casualty of COVID-19.

With all large gatherings suspended indefinitely, the Green Cove …

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‘We just have no guarantees of what’s going to happen’

Green Cove Springs officials explain while RiverFest was canceled


Posted

GREEN COVE SPRINGS – The annual Green Cove Springs RiverFest Memorial Day festivities became the latest casualty of COVID-19.

With all large gatherings suspended indefinitely, the Green Cove Springs City Council decided to cancel the event with plans holding some of the events later in the year in conjunction with Veterans Day when the Veterans recognition ceremony will be held.

The decision was made by emergency motion at the March 24 city council meeting.

It was necessary for several reasons.

“We actually start planning and working on the entertainment and what we want to do for festivities after Christmas; first of the year,” said Kimberly Thomas, executive assistant and City Event Coordinator. “By March 1, I am starting to get invitations together for local dignitaries for the military officials that come for the veteran’s recognition ceremony, the opening ceremony that morning. Many of them have to have so much notice because we have admirals and different ones that come.”

In the case of the military dignitaries, it was impossible this year because none of them were making extended plans due to uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another problem was the vendor situation. By the middle of March, vendors are already submitting applications. In a typical year, there usually are about 100 vendors, according to Thomas. This year, there were much fewer, again, due to the uncertainty of public health and legislation. They were hesitant, thinking of possible financial losses is they spent their money to prepare their crafts and plan their meals if they were food vendors. The city considered this for the sake of the vendors.

Many other factors, such as parks and recreation workers, need to be assigned and paid to set up the park where the event was to be held. Decorations and other items which would need to be ordered would have to have that done by a certain, or there would be a risk that they wouldn’t arrive in time if the event did take place.

“The time and the money that goes into planning it, it does take two or three months of hard planning prior to the actual date, not just by us, but by all the participants that are involved. So, for their sake as well, rather than cancel at the last moment it’s better if there’s even a possibility and do it now and save everybody the funds and the time. It’s a difficult decision to make, but we just have no guarantees of what’s going to happen,” Thomas said.

According to Thomas and the city council, the decision to cancel the RiverFest event wasn’t made lightly. It simply wasn’t worth the gamble in light of an uncertain future.

The current plan is to reschedule for November. While it won’t feature a full festival, it will include a veterans recognition ceremony.