The city of Miami held a press conference Friday morning to discuss postponing and canceling local events due to the corona virus.
Mayor Francis Suarez announced that both Ultra electronic music festival and Calle Ocho music festival will be postponed this year. The special events permit for Calle Ocho was unapproved, resulting in it being postponed.
"We are emphasizing to the public that this decision is not a cause for alarm or panic, but rather that we are doing it in an abundance of caution," he said.
Calle Ocho , which was scheduled for March 15, is part of Carnaval Miami, and raises money for social programs.
Suarez said that as COVID-19 Corona virus cases increase, public events and mass gatherings create a risk by increasing person to person contact.
The decision came from CDC guidelines which defines mass gatherings as ones with 25,000 people or more.
"With this in mind, we have chosen to take a point of preventative action with our residents in mind," he said.
The decision was made while working with representatives of Ultra and Calle Ocho. The mayor hopes to continue work with them and help lessen the impact of the postponements on the organizations.
In a statement on their Twitter, Ultra informed fans that the festival has been rescheduled to March 26, 27, and 28 2021. It was originally scheduled for March 20, 21, and 22.
"We completely understand how extremely frustrating this is because so many of you are looking forward to coming to Ultra, having already made travel arrangements," the statement read, "This is, however, an unprecedented issue which is not being taken lightly and we must continue to defer to authorities for guidance. "
