Center City Has Decided To Cancel The Electric Light Parade

When I saw it in my news feed, I couldn't believe it. Then I went to Center City's website, and there it was. The Electric Light Parade will not be happening in 2020.

The cause given is, of course, Covid-19. We've been dealing with a surge in cases that has stressed our local hospitals to their limits.

This year has been a year of cancellations and postponements. Through it all, it seemed like we always held on to hope that the number of cases would go down and we would have everything under control.

We've even tried coming up with creative ways to still have big events. The Electric Light Parade was going to be in reverse, meaning you would drive through looking at all of the floats. Sure, it wasn't the same as finding some crowded sidewalk to share and watch the floats drive by; but it was better than nothing.

Most events at the Civic Center Complex have been canceled or postponed through the end of the year.

We had to cancel our second year of Beer & Bacon Fest, and our annual Wine Down & Dessert Wars.

There is still plenty of things to do around town for the holidays. You can still appreciate the entire season from light displays, to getting photos done with Santa. The Electric Light Parade just won't be a part of it.

It's unfortunate, really. I keep hoping that one day I'll wake up, and people will quit fighting each other over the virus and instead decide to do what needs to be done to get through this. I wonder if we had done that as a whole earlier this year, instead of screaming at each other, maybe we wouldn't be canceling so much.