Hopes for the return of Gibsons’ largest summertime celebration will have to be pushed to 2022.
In an email to volunteers and board members, organizer Phill Murray announced Sea Cavalcade would be cancelled this year.
“I had hoped that there would be some way to squeak in under the wire with the help of the vaccine and hold a Sea Cavalcade 2021,” he said in the April 6 email.
“I was optimistic but the wise counsel of so many of you and the realities of the COVID situation make this impossible.”
The organization plans to “keep the possibility of Sea Cavalcade 2022 alive,” and meetings are expected to begin in fall to plan the event.
Murray said there was “lots of positive energy” for a return next summer and he has suggested running a billboard in Winegarden Park and advertising in June with the intention of enrolling new volunteers along with organization veterans to assist with planning.
Similar disappointment was felt this time last year, when Murray opted to cancel the 2020 event as COVID-related public health restrictions tightened in April, and after hearing from organizing committee members.
Plans had been underway to relaunch the festival that year. The event hasn’t run since the 50th anniversary celebration in 2018.
