Newport Exhibition Group announced today that its annual boat show scheduled to take place September 17 through 20, 2020 at the Newport Yachting Center in downtown Newport, Rhode Island, has been cancelled.
Due to spikes in new cases of COVID-19 across the United States, Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo, stated that, although Phase III of re-opening would have included no cap on the number of people at outdoor events, she is revising that to 250 people as a precaution. During her June 29 press conference, she said, “Rhode Island and Connecticut are the only two states where numbers are not rising at this time. I want to see it continue that way.”
“The adjusted and stricter COVID guidance regarding events announced from the State was a strong indicator to us that we cannot move forward with a major event in this environment,” said Paul O’Reilly, CEO, Newport Restaurant Group and owner of the Newport International Boat Show. “There are just too many unknowns at this point and a very high probability that the show will not be allowed to move forward and, even if it was, it would be in a format that would clearly not be valued by our exhibitors and attendees. Therefore, we are shifting our focus to the 2021 show.”
