By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY – Ocean City’s biggest summer party has been canceled.
Mayor Jay Gillian announced Monday afternoon that he was canceling the annual Night in Venice boat parade that traditionally draws thousands of people to the resort. The decades-old event features decorated boats that travel the bay and lagoons on a Saturday night in mid-July. Scores of houses along the bay and lagoons are also decorated for the event, often with elaborate themes. Judges present awards for the best decorated boats and houses and the resort brings in a celebrity grand marshal for the boat parade.
The mayor also said he was canceling the July Fourth fireworks.
The South Ocean City Improvement Association (SOCIA) announced last week that it was canceling its massive July Fourth bike parade.
All of the cancelations have been attributed to safety because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fear of spreading this coronavirus in crowds. The state has been slowly lifting restrictions that have been in place since March because of the pandemic, allowing larger and larger gatherings.
“I met with my senior staff this afternoon, and we decided that the Fourth of July fireworks and Night in Venice will not be held this year,” Gillian wrote Tuesday afternoon in his letter to the public, posted on the Ocean City website. “I believe these are important traditions to preserve, and I had hoped that we would be able to plan for safe events.
“But with the enormous influx of people we’ve seen over the past few weeks and with the governor still prohibiting mass gatherings and dense crowds, we do not believe it would be responsible to continue with these popular events. The health and safety of everybody who loves Ocean City will always be our top priority,” Gillian wrote.
“I want to thank you all for your understanding. If we continue to observe social distancing guidelines, we’ll all be able to enjoy a fun and completely healthy summer.”
Night in Venice has been known as Ocean City’s biggest partying night of the summer, when houses all along the lagoons and bays are filled with people gathered to watch the boat parade and then to celebrate long into the night.
The fireworks also have been a huge draw for the city, and the SOCIA bike parade is a popular family event that has hundreds of people riding decorated bikes and floats starting at 40th Street.
Gov. Phil Murphy just announced Monday that restaurants would be allowed to serve customers indoors at 25 percent capacity beginning July 2 and that casinos in Atlantic City would be allowed to open under the same restrictions.
The governor said he would be making more announcements this week about other restrictions being lifted. Ocean City’s Boardwalk still has some of its prime attractions closed – the amusement parks and water parks have not been allowed to reopen, nor have the arcades. Merchants groups have been fighting to get these attractions opened because they say without them, families are not staying on the boardwalk as long into the evenings.