In recent days the leadership of the Coastal Alabama Business Chamber and Annual National Shrimp Festival Committee have consulted with our volunteers, health care officials, tourism bureau and a number of business partners.

After weighing many factors surrounding this four-day event, it has been decided that the health risks to our volunteers in particular; but also vendors, citizens, and visitors are too great and the festival is being canceled. This decision is an extremely difficult one, but safety is our top priority.

Several concerns entail our local hospitals ability to care for a large influx of new cases while at near capacity with existing patients. Also, our volunteers’ prolonged multiday exposure to many attendees while in an environment that is impossible to control crowd size with safe distancing of patrons.

A large number of volunteers have voiced legitimate concerns over their safety, equating to a reduced ability to adequately manage and man the event. This decision is much like that of other festivals such as Hangout Fest and the pre-Hurricane Ida cancellation of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival over the same weekend.

Our mission at the Coastal Alabama Business Chamber and through the Gateway Initiative, is to support our business community by providing commerce opportunities and workforce solutions.

With the help of many partners it has been decided that this cannot be safely done when gathering a large number of people and vendors in a confined space over four days.

The 2021 tourist season was a record breaking year and projections are strong for a busy fall. Our goal will be to work hard in making improvements to the festival in 2022, not only providing a quality experience but also to improve crowd monitoring and better controlled access.