Evansville’s Christmas on North Main Parade Canceled for 2020

It was announced today (July 13th) that the annual North Main Christmas Parade would be canceled this year out of an abundance of caution.

Here's a statement that was posted on the Evansville's Christmas on North Man Parade Facebook Page:

In light of the West Side Nut Club cancelling its parade and the Fall Festival and with the growing cases of coronavirus in our area, the Evansville Christmas parade committee has voted to cancel the “2020 Evansville’s Christmas on North Main Parade and Santa’s Workshop” that was scheduled for November 22.

The committee had met previously and determined that we would check the situation with the pandemic the first of July. We had heard that the West Side Nut Club may be cancelling so we
thought we would wait to hear their decision. Last Wednesday, when we heard the news that the Fall Festival was cancelled; we polled all of the Christmas parade committee members and the
vote was 11-2 that we cancel the 2020 parade.

“Our biggest concern was the safety of the viewers and participants even though it is an outside event”, Gail Knight Williams, Director of the Evansville Christmas Parade stated. She continues by saying “We know we are not as big as the Fall Festival however we still draw approximately 10,000 viewers and participants. We also know there would be no way to impose social distancing, so it would be a very risky situation to have that large of a crowd gather”.

The parade committee will begin planning for the 2021 parade in January.

This parade is always a fun one, and one we participate in every year.  I always enjoy getting to roll down North Main in the GBF truck with a tacky Christmas sweater on, and spreading some holiday cheer.  I'm glad they were able to make the decision sooner rather than later, and I understand why the decision  was made, and appreciate them making public safety the top priority. It is however still a bit of a bummer.  But there's always next year!