Galveston City Council votes to cancel Mardi Gras celebration because of virus
It’s official: Galveston has canceled the island’s annual Mardi Gras celebration due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A unanimous vote by the City Council on Tuesday sealed the fate of the fête, scheduled for Feb. 5-16. The event had appeared unlikely to occur for weeks with mardi Gras Krewes canceling large parades, a main part of the event, and other organizers calling off balls, galas and gatherings.
Mayor Craig Brown said officials are planning to look next month at contracts for 2022 for the city-sponsored downtown celebration that’s part of the festival.
“I think that council felt, and I feel, that this was the proper decision for the concerns that we are experiencing with COVID-19,” Brown said in a brief telephone interview Wednesday. “I appreciate the concern that we’ve been receiving from a lot of citizens.”
The cancellation of the large celebration marked the second in Brown’s recollection. It was also canceled during World War II, he said.
Despite the hope offered by the recent distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, the cancellation served as a reminder that big, public events may still be months away.
This week, days before New Year’s Eve and after other holidays, health officials throughout the region and across the nation have urged people to not celebrate en masse and to follow recommended public health guidelines as the number of coronavirus cases and deaths remains high.
In Houston, organizers of the rodeo announced in December that the popular competitions, concerts, entertainment and carnival were being pushed back to May from March. But those plans are dependent on the pandemic.
Some officials pointed out that even then may be too soon for gatherings.
“We still do not knowif hosting a mass gathering like the rodeo in May will be feasible, safe or advisable, and it maywell not be,” Harris Countyjudge Linahidalgosaid after the rodeo announcement.
Meanwhile, in Galveston, special event permits have been placed on hold since March and large events remain a risk for high transmission of the coronavirus, according to David Smith, the
city’s executive director of fleet, transit and special events. His statement came in a request to consider making the cancellation official.
“It is the intent of staff to bring back events when medical experts opine that the risk to the general public is manageable,” Smith wrote in the request. “Most organizers advise that event attendance will be strong once things return to the new normal, whenever that may be.”
In November, the oldest Krewe of the island city’s Mardi Gras festivities, Knights of Momus, canceled its parade, coronation and ball.
“We had hoped we might find some safe way to hold the events, but the current surge in cases en
tering the holiday season rendered this hope untenable and the risks unmanageable,” Kenneth Shelton Jr., chairman of the executive committee of the Knights of Momus, said in a statement at the time. “While the existence of the vaccine holds promise for the future, it will likely make the public feel less at risk and thus more prone to risky behavior.”
Brown, the newly elected mayor, said city officials and organizers are now looking forward to a “very lively and prosperous” festival in 2022. “Of course, that depends on the situation from the standpoint of the COVID-19 concerns,” he added.