The annual Leesburg Bikefest has been canceled amid fears of the outbreak of the Coronavirus.
The cancellation was announced by the Leesburg Partnership on Monday on the Bikefest website and on the group’s Facebook page. The decision regarding the event, which was scheduled for April 24-26, was made after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called for the cancellation of all events of 50 or more people for the next eight weeks – a number that was revised to groups of 10 or more by President Trump on Monday afternoon.
The announcement also came on the same day that the Florida Department of Health revealed that a Lady Lake woman in her sixties had tested positive for COVID-19.
Bikefest, which is billed as “The World’s Largest 3-Day Motorcycle and Music Event,” brings tens of thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts and visitors into the tri-county area on an annual basis and pumps millions of dollars into the Central Florida market. It was supposed to spread across 30 city blocks with 55-plus concerts, 200-plus vendors, six “Hotbody” contests and bike and stunt shows.
Leesburg Commissioner Dan Robuck III had raised the possibility canceling Bikefest during last week’s regularly scheduled commission meeting. He cited the massive quarantine under way in Italy and added that while he wasn’t yet pushing for Bikefest to be canceled, commissioners needed to be prepared to take action if needed, depending on the spread of the disease that has been labeled as a pandemic.
