For the second consecutive year, COVID is the main reason Newark’s Community Day won’t happen.
The city, along with the University of Delaware, announced the cancellation of the September 19th event, citing concerns about managing COVID protocols..
The Green on UD’s campus hosts Community Day and with the university requiring guests to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a recent negative test to attend events on campus, Newark Parks and Recreation director Joe Spadafino says it would be too much to handle logistically.
"There's a lot of different access points too much for us to cover and require those types of restrictions to the event," he said. "So we thought it was best to cancel the event since we weren't up to keeping up with those restrictions and also the current COVID environment on campus in talking with the university."
The cancellation comes as UD is seeing an uptick in COVID cases.
Despite having 91 percent of students vaccinated, UD is seeing a jump in COVID cases on campus this week. The school reported a combined 241 Wednesday and Thursday with over 100 each day
Spadafino adds the city understands how businesses, especially on Main Street, are hurt by the cancellation.
"We feel like these events bring people into the city and they go to restaurants or come into town to entertain themselves or what have you as part of the event," said Spadafino. "They'll spend some time downtown so we do plan on moving forward with our other events and hopefully we'll be able to get one of these in."
Even though Community Day is cancelled, Newark does plan to hold other events this fall like the Harvest Festival, its Halloween Parade and Trick-or-Treat Main Street, and NewBark PawLooza.
Spadafino does add that Community Day will be on the 2022 calendar.
