Englewood, FL | October 4, 2024 – PR Web — The Englewood Beach Waterfest Board of Directors held a board meeting this week to discuss whether or not to move forward with the annual waterfront community event and OPA World Championship Race, scheduled for November 15-17, 2024. The reason for the meeting came after the entire Gulf Coast, specifically the Englewood Beach and Manasota Key areas, experienced extreme storm surge damage from the effects of Hurricane Helene that rushed through the Gulf waters on September 26, 2024.

“We had to make the very difficult decision to cancel 2024 Waterfest, based on the timing of our annual event, which was set to take place just a few weeks from now. With all of the considerable damage to our community businesses, residential homes, and beachfront accommodations caused by the storm surge, we felt as a collective board that we could not execute the event without hindering the progress of rebuilding and repair that needs to take place here in our community”, stated Jay Henderson, President of the Englewood Beach Waterfest Board of Directors. “We have had so much community, volunteer, and local government support for Waterfest throughout this entire year, with much of it coming from local business sponsors, many of which have been negatively impacted by the storm. While it was a very tough decision to cancel, we knew it was the only responsible choice to make as residents and business owners ourselves, as we all remain Englewood Strong” Henderson further expanded.

As the historic Dearborn Street area was not as hard hit as the beach and key areas, the Board of Directors decided to move forward with the community-wide “Block Party” event on Friday, November 15, 2024. While the full details will be announced soon, this free event will feature live music from Noah’s Arcade, local food, retail vendors offering their goods and services for purchase, and we hope to have a few local race teams in attendance. Vendors will be located around the Dignam Family Stage at Pioneer Plaza. Interested vendors can submit applications for booth space via the event website.

Please consider attending the Block Party on Friday, November 15, 2024, as we bring our community together for a free and fun event. Our Block Party Sponsor is “Englewood Glass and Mirror”. The Entertainment Sponsors are “Fire It Up Grills and Outdoor Features” and “Tiffany Square Dental”.

Look for further announcements as the Board of Directors make progress on planning for the 2025 Waterfest Event. https://englewoodbeachwaterfest.com/

Stay tuned for more information to come on the event.