NORTHAMPTON — The 31st annual Florence Holiday Parade has been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kurt Brazeau, president of the Florence Civic and Business Association, confirmed Friday that the parade, scheduled for Nov. 28 on Main St., has been called off. He said the decision was made a few months ago by the association in part because many of the participants have said they will not be marching, such as the Melha Shriners.
“The acts aren’t performing because of the health risk,” Brazeau said. “We all sat down and talked about it and decided it just wasn’t a good year for it.”
Even if the participants said they would march in the parade, Brazeau said the event would likely be canceled anyway due to the increasing numbers of COVID-19 infections in the state.
“We don’t really want to get lots of people to congregate together to begin with,” he said. “It’s a public health risk.”
Instead, Brazeau said the association plans on spending its newfound extra time to hang more holiday lights in Florence.
“We always do a pretty good job, but we’re actually bumping it up this year — adding more lights and things,” Brazeau said. “That’s where we’re putting our extra time and energy this year.”
Michael Connors can be reached at mconnors@gazettenet.com.