HYDE PARK — The newly rebranded Hyde Park Summer Fest, originally planned for next month, has been canceled amid concerns over the coronavirus and the highly contagious Delta variant.
Organizers of the festival, formerly known as the Hyde Park Brew Fest, announced their decision to cancel the festival on Instagram Wednesday.
“It is our obligation to prioritize our community’s health and safety over any other interests,” the organizers said in a statement. “With increasing COVID-19 cases and associated risks, we do not believe it is the right choice to move forward with the festival at this time.”
Past events have drawn close to 20,000 attendees, and co-organizers Dave Jeff and Jonathan Swain anticipated a similar crowd this year.
“This decision was not easy, but it is the necessary and responsible one to make,” they said.
DJ Jazzy Jeff was set to headline the festival, with the organizers looking to recruit local acts like Terry Hunter, Jay Illa, Allen King, Vince Adams and DJ Mustafa Rocks.
Deposits will be refunded to festival vendors. For more information on refunds, email vendors@eatdrinkbeevents.com.
Other neighborhood festivals, including the Silver Room Block Party in Hyde Park and the Little Italy Festival, have been canceled at least in part due to the pandemic.
Chicago’s coronavirus positivity rate was 3.3 percent as of Tuesday, up from 0.5 percent July 6.
The city is seeing an average of 243 cases per day. On Tuesday, there were 340 confirmed cases, more than 10 times higher than the number of cases reported July 6.
About 97 percent of people who have been hospitalized with or have died from coronavirus since January were not fully vaccinated, officials have said.
More than 99.9 percent of Chicagoans who are vaccinated have not been diagnosed with coronavirus since getting their shots, city commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said Tuesday.
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