We all knew this was coming, but that doesn’t make it sting any less: Supercrawl, Hamilton’s largest annual street festival, has been cancelled for 2020 due to ongoing concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
The giant-sized cousin of James Street North’s monthly Art Crawl events, Supercrawl isn’t just one of Hamilton’s hottest arts festivals; it’s one of the most prominent in all of Ontario.
We spend our year planning a weekend get-together with all of you, so we're crushed to announce that Supercrawl will not take place this September as scheduled. pic.twitter.com/IFdaGWOFrx
— Supercrawl (@supercrawl) June 17, 2020
Taking over a huge stretch of James North and attracting hundreds of thousands of attendees by showcasing a scorching lineup of music, live art, food, vendors, and more, Supercrawl is one of the yearly events that puts Hamilton on the map. In fact, last year’s event drew over 250,000 people over the course of the festival weekend.
However, with restrictions on large gatherings amid the COVID-19 pandemic likely to stay in place until well into 2021, there’s just no way Supercrawl – with its massive attraction for tightly-packed crowds – could move forward the same way on its original dates of September 4th to 6th, 2020.
“Our team is capable and creative, but with public health officials still guarded in their optimism and measured in their steps to open social spaces up again, we have determined — in close consultation with our board of directors and after much deliberation — that we cannot move ahead as planned,” reads a statement on Supercrawl’s website.
“The safety and wellbeing of audiences, artists, vendors, staff, volunteers, our neighbours and the wider community is of the utmost importance to us. We continue to keep our eyes on the horizon and look forward to gathering with you all again soon.”
But not all hope is lost! The tenacious team at Supercrawl is gratefully not looking at 2020 as a total write-off, as they’re also teasing some vague plans to introduce alternative COVID-friendly events that will happen later this year.
“We’re working on plans to get together beginning in late fall and running through to early 2021. Look for an announcement in early fall with a fresh slate of happenings,” says Supercrawl.
While there’s no indication of what those events will look like just yet, keep your eyes peeled for how Supercrawl tries to make 2020 a little less sucky; and get ready for 2021, when Supercrawl will hopefully be back full-force.
Lead image courtesy of @supercrawl
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