PANAMA CITY BEACH – Thunder Beach’s twentieth fall motorcycle rally is now the newest addition to a developing list of cancelled occasions due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The announcement comes less than a week after Panama City Beach refused a permit for the occasion and about five months after the cancellation of the 22nd spring rally, which attracts thousands of guests, boasts of places and receives more than a hundred vendors.
City administrator Tony O’Rourke said the fall rally was still too complicated, as the region continues to suffer the crippling effects of coronavirus.
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“While the number of new COVID-19 cases in the United States, Florida, and Bay County has slowly declined in recent weeks, the country is still dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic,” O’Rourke wrote in a memorandum to Thunder Beach. “The city simply cannot threaten any other primary COVID-19 outbreaks as we experienced in late June and July. “
While Joe Biggs, president of Thunder Beach Productions, said he understood O’Rourke’s decision, he feared that an influx of runners would stop in the domain despite the cancellation of the event. that if the rally were still continuing with more security measures in place. He added that something similar happened this spring.
“It’s kind of catch-22,” Biggs said. but we know from history that other people love coming to the area, and there will still be a lot of runners coming. “
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In the memorandum, O’Rourke added that the informal event, held from 21 to 25 October, is expected to attract 20,000 to 25,000 visitors to the PCB, a number that said it would be suitable for the economy but a “very giant social collection in the midst of a pandemic. “
As of September 13, Bay County had reported about 5,700 positive cases of COVID-19 and more than 90 similar deaths, he said.
For Biggs, Thunder Beach differs from other primary occasions in that it attracts a primary audience over the age of 40, so he thought visitors would have been more aware of the rules of social distance.
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The same audience also includes many other people who are likely to spend a lot of money on PCBs, he added.
“Custom motorcycles are not cheap, so it is located that other people (who) buy them and attend motorcycle events. Array. . . tends to be an audience rich enough for these kinds of hobbies,” Biggs said.
He added that “at the end of the day” his willingness to host the rally is not because his organization doesn’t care about public health, but because he thinks so. safely.
Looking ahead, I hoped the pandemic would continue to decline so that runners could burn rubber next year.
“No one has a crystal ball, (and) that’s the challenge with the whole situation,” he said. “We hope that cases will allow us to have a spring rally, and if you do, you can bet your last dollar that we will have a very big event. “