It looks like another popular summer festival won't be happening this year.
The Essex Fun Fest Committee has unanimously voted in favour of cancelling the July event.
Essex ward one councillor Joe Garon sits on the committee as the chair and says the committee's recommendation will now head to town council for a final decision.
He says the committee was holding out as long as possible but with the festival approaching in less than 10 weeks, a decision needed to be made.
Garon says the decision to cancel the event is unfortunate but the committee wants to keep everyone safe.
"We would love to have our festival," says Garon. "Our residents are looking for something to do. Our businesses are looking for an up tick in business that they get and generate from our festival and we just can't through for them again this year and it's to bad."
He says the committee took many things into consideration such as the vendors.
"One thing just off the top of my head is our amusement company," he says. "I mean they come down a long ways for our festival but they try to piggy back on a couple other local ones and kind of go from week to week and festival to festival and they're not even certain about their participation this year because of COVID and all the regulations being put on them."
Garon adds the committee is looking at alternatives.
"We're hopeful that if it permits that maybe in the fall we could so something, maybe not the Essex Fun Fest but maybe some type of a community festival, ran by the Fun Fest committee," says Garon. "Something along the lines of music in the streets or something like that."
The event was also cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Other festivals cancelled for 2021 include Art in the Park, the LaSalle Strawberry, Tecumseh's Corn Fest and Kingsville's Highland Games.
- with files from AM800's Gord Bacon