Governor Gina Raimondo announced Wednesday that all large music festivals, parades, cultural celebrations and weddings of more than 50 people (possibly 100 in August) are canceled in Rhode Island through Summer 2020.
“If you’re planning a very large summer gathering. A Fourth of July Parade, a large music festival, a huge cultural event with hundreds and hundreds of people, you’re not going to be able to have that event in the State of Rhode Island this summer with those people, in person,” Raimondo said. “That is a killer announcement for me to make and my stomach is in a knot as I think of Aquidneck Island, and Newport, and Westerly, and Bristol for the Fourth of July Parade, and the Newport Folk Festival, and all of the events that we have that make Rhode Island great, and, quite frankly, that buoy our tourism economy,” Raimondo continued. “But in good conscience, I cannot stand here and tell you that you’re going to be able to have those events in June, in July, in August, in the way that you had hoped to have. So, I’m asking you right now to prepare yourselves to make alternative plans.”
Raimondo also addressed weddings.
“If you are planning a summer wedding in June or July of greater than 50 people, it’s not likely you’re going to be able to have that wedding in person this summer in Rhode Island if it’s 50 people or more,” she said. There’s an outside possibility that when we get to August we might be in a place where we life the social gatherings from 50 to a hundred. So it’s possible that in August you can have a wedding with 100 people, but I can’t promise you that now,” she said.
