Watsonville cancels all city special events in 2020

WATSONVILLE, Calif. (KION) Watsonville city manager Matt Huffaker made the tough decision to cancel all special events in the city for the remainder of the year.

This decision will shut down about a dozen events, including the Strawberry Festival, the Wine, Beer and Art walk and the Fourth of July firework show.

“It just didn’t make sense at this point in time for the city to be investing our resources into events with a small amount of certainty that they’d be able to go on as planned,” Huffaker said.

The announcement comes from the city after Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday, mass gatherings likely won't be allowed to take place in California during the summer and longer.

"The prospect of mass gatherings is negligible, at best, until we get to herd immunity and we get to a vaccine," Newsom said.

The Strawberry festival is the biggest event on the calendar that is canceled, and has a rich tradition in Watsonville.

“It's a great way to bring attention to our downtown businesses and restaurants, and just means a lot to our community," Parks and Community Services Director Nick Calubaquib said.

The cancellations will also bring a financial hit to the city and vendors at the events. The Strawberry Festival typically generates about $120,000 annually for the city. There is also staff that works all year around to prepare for the event.

“We kind of ramp up our planning efforts starting in January to book all of the vendors,” Calubaquib said.

As of Wednesday the Santa Cruz County fair, which is held in September, has not been canceled. Event organizers say they will wait for guidance by the county health officer and state guidelines.

Events that are privately run in the city will be discouraged to be held too.

“For other events that would typically take place on city facilities or on local public roads, we will also encourage those events don’t take place this year as well,” Huffaker said.

The city is thinking of creative ways to still host these events in some form, like they did this past weekend.

“We weren’t able to hold our typical annual Easter egg hunt as we usually do, so we hosted a virtual Easter egg hunt," Huffaker said.