At last minute, Las Olas Art Fair canceled due to COVID-19 surge
There’s one more tradition the pandemic will take away: the Las Olas Art Fair.
The popular event was canceled late Wednesday afternoon after the county warned organizers they could be fined $15,000 for each safety violation.
Just a day earlier, Fort Lauderdale commissioners had approved plans to hold the fair this weekend. Event organizers had gotten a green light from both city and county officials after promising to follow COVID-19 safety protocols.
“We let them know everyone has to wear a mask and that was their responsibility,” said Leonard “Lenny” Vialpando, director of the Broward’s Environmental Protection & Growth Management Department.
Stan Eichelbaum, a downtown resident and frequent critic of what he calls spreader events, was thrilled when he heard the show won’t go on after all.
“I love it,” he said “We’re happy the county saw the peril to the community.”
Jodi Jeffreys-Tanner, vice president of Las Olas Association, said officials with Howard Alan Events made the final decision to cancel.
“I can’t even believe it,” she said. “All these artists were coming into town. It was already approved by the county and the city. And they did this at the last minute. It seems very harsh. This makes me really sad. If people don’t feel safe coming out they don’t have to come out.”
Vice Mayor Steve Glassman said Tuesday that he stayed away from the last art show in October and had no plans to attend this one. But he thought the fair should take place — as long as people wear their masks and follow the rules.
“The numbers are really bad right now,” Glassman said of the surge in coronavirus cases, including a one-day record of 17,783 new case reported Wednesday. “This is a difficult situation. We’re
in tough times. Just because there’s a vaccine out there, people still have to wear masks and be really careful.”
Safety ambassadors had planned to roam the crowd handing out masks to anyone who loses theirs.
That was small comfort to resident Jim Brady, who had one word for the earlier decision to let the show go on: “insane.”
Brady, a retired attorney, said he expected another wave of cases five to 10 days after the show. Some weren’t worried at all. “I doubt those people have any evidence for claiming it’s a superspreader event,” said downtown resident James Bartholomew. “It’s just hysteria.”
Fort Lauderdale officials heard similar complaints in October, when the art show returned after a seven-month delay due to the pandemic.
The event normally draws a crowd of 30,000, but this year
was expecting only 4,000 people.
In an effort to keep crowds down, people were told to RSVP for a certain time, Jeffreys-Tanner said.
More than 130 artists had planned to line up along Las Olas from Southeast Sixth Avenue to
Southeast 11th Avenue on Saturday and Sunday.
Fort Lauderdale has already approved the dates for the next show: March 6-7.
It was unclear Wednesday whether that event would be canceled, too.