Macon cancels annual Main Street Christmas parade due to coronavirus restrictions

The 2020 Main Street Macon Christmas Parade has been officially canceled because of concerns of the coronavirus pandemic.

Alex Morrison, the executive director of the Macon-Bibb County Urban Development Authority, said they had to go ahead and make a decision based on what health experts are projecting the outbreak to look like in December.

“There’s just no way we could host the parade in accordance with guidelines based on the information we have today,” Morrison said. “A parade is literally thousands of people, and while it is outdoors, still because of the parameters of a parade, people would be in close contact with other people for longer than 15 minutes.”

If the parade happened, there would be no way to guarantee the safety of the participants, and in the last few weeks, they made the decision to officially cancel the event, Morrison said.

The parade is traditionally held in downtown Macon on the first Sunday of December, which would have been Dec. 6 this year.

“We hope that everyone continues to stay safe and listen to the guidelines,” Morrision said. “We’re making this decision out of an abundance of caution and safety for guests and participants and hope that everybody else is keeping that up in their daily routines and lives, so we can come through this and hope to see everybody back in full swing in 2021.”