Cape Coral’s 50th anniversary, ‘Red, White and Boom’ both postponed

Another big event in Southwest Florida is canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Cape Coral City council decided not to hold the city’s 50th anniversary Sept. 5, along with “Red, White and Boom,” which had been rescheduled for Sept. 7. on Labor Day.

“Red, White and Boom” had already been postponed due to the previous rise in COVID-19.

The city’s 50th anniversary event was expected to draw thousands of people out to celebrate, with fireworks lighting up the sky over the bridge. But the rise of COVID-19 numbers was enough for council to decide it needed to be canceled for now.

Everyone will have to wait until 2021 to see fireworks light up the sky in honor of Cape Coral.

“We look forward to ‘Red White and Boom’ for sure,” Mike James said. “It’s an important time for the family to get together.”

“Always like a huge crowd, just fun, fireworks, food,” Shannon Weimar said.

The city says its scheduled entertainer is not available, and it would need to put down a nonrefundable deposit for the fireworks, but the biggest concern was safety.

“We decided also with the mass gatherings, you know 50 or less, that we really could not have the event on Sept. 5,” said Kerry Runyon, the city’s director of parks and recreation.

James says he’s disappointed to hear the event is canceled, nd he thinks people still could have enjoyed the event while staying safe.

“We were looking forward to the Labor Day event, and we thought that that would be just fine,” James said. “For those of us who practice social distancing and we are able to make those wise decisions, I think we should be able to decide that.”

But Weimar says she understands the decision.

“I just think like the less crowds, the better right now,” Weimar said.

The city and Cape Coral neighbors are all hoping they can have the event everyone enjoys again soon.

“There’s a lot of planning that goes into the ‘Red, White and Boom’ as well as the September event,” Runyon said. “And yes. They are a little disappointed, but they understand the circumstances, and we will just push for next year.”

The city says it plans to have a small celebration of Cape Coral’s milestone anniversary Aug. 18. That will be live streamed.

“Whenever they have an event, we are going to show up, and we’ll enjoy it,” James said.