Cancellation of Mardi Gras was right move

Making a decision that is right doesn’t always make people happy. That point was proven recently when the 2020 Fairport Harbor Mardi Gras was canceled because of concerns related to novel coronavirus.

The Fairport Mardi Gras Committee, in an April 4 Facebook post, announced its decision to cancel the festival in 2020.

In that post, Mardi Gras Committee President Shannon Barnhill said she and other members of the panel have been “closely monitoring the ever-evolving COVID-19 situation.”

“Unfortunately with the current projections, we believe it is in the best interest of the general public, our volunteers and vendors to cancel Fairport Mardi Gras for 2020,” Barnhill said. “While we are disheartened at the thought of a Fourth of July without our festival traditions, we feel that moving forward with #mg2020 would be a risk to the community that we work so hard for.”

The 2020 Mardi Gras festival had been slated for July 1 through July 5. An annual event dating back nearly 80 years, Mardi Gras traditionally begins with a parade, concludes with a fireworks display, and throughout its duration features plenty of rides, games, food and entertainment.

About 140 comments were posted on the Fairport Mardi Gras Facebook page over a three-day period in reaction to the committee’s decision to cancel the 2020 festival. The majority of those commenters expressed disappointment or sadness that it won’t happen this year, but also understood why event organizers took the action they did.

When The News-Herald posted its story on the Mardi Gras cancellation on Facebook, one commenter gave a more critical assessment of the committee’s verdict.

“Decided way too early,” the man said. “It is after all the beginning of April. Could have waited until June.”

However, it’s likely that anyone who shares that sentiment has never been involved in planning and carrying out a special event such as Mardi Gras.

Barnhill explained on Facebook that Mardi Gras is an event that requires months of preparation, to address topics such as theme planning and logos, and securing commitments from entertainers, advertisers, concession and ride operators, a fireworks-display company and parade participants.

“It’s not fair to all of them to cancel a week beforehand, or to ask our volunteers to put in numerous hours a week until July, when it’s pretty clear we’re not close to being out of the woods yet (with the COVID-19 pandemic),” she said.

In addition, Fairport Harbor Mayor Timothy Manross said it’s impossible to predict what social-distancing guidelines are going to be in July, when Mardi Gras would draw thousands of additional people into the village.

“You hope by then (socially distancing) will be less restrictive, but you don’t know for certain and can’t plan for it,” Manross said.

Based on all of the information that Mardi Gras Committee members had in front of them regarding the COVID-19 crisis, the group made the right choice to cancel this year’s festival, Manross said. He added that village government fully supports the group’s decision.

Mardi Gras Committee Vice President Karen Bidlack added that the group’s top priority for 2020 is to keep the public safe.

“We didn’t want to take the chance of prolonging the virus,” she said.

Let’s face it — right now, it’s anybody’s guess as to when COVID-19 will be declared under control and we can go back to living our lives normally and without restrictions here in Ohio.

Since there are no guarantees, we commend the Fairport Mardi Gras Committee for making a wise choice in canceling this year’s festival. The health and safety of everyone who would have attended the festival is far too important to jeopardize, in the event that COVID-19 still poses a threat in early July.

Although it wasn’t a popular decision, members of the allvolunteer Fairport Mardi Gras Committee made the correct move in canceling the 2020 festival. They now can redirect their energies on planning Mardi Gras for 2021, when hopefully COVID-19 will be nothing more than a distant memory.

Let’s face it — right now, it’s anybody’s guess as to when COVID-19 will be declared under control ...