Red Bank Cancels Oyster Fest & International Beer, Wine & Food Fest

September and October seem like the distant future...and at the rate things have gone in 2020, Cthulhu may have already risen from the depths by then. But until that happens, we have to focus on the big annual events that, unfortunately, continue to be impacted by the pandemic.

Really Unbelievable Events, or RUE, is the company that runs the Red Bank Guinness Oyster Fest and the Red Bank International Beer, Wine, and Food Fest - and they just canceled both.

It was a simple statement in an email:

Dear Friends,
Due to Covid 19 and a lack of funds the following events have been cancelled.
I hope you and your families are well and we look forward to seeing you in 2021!
Take Care!

Really, there is not much more they could have said. We all had high hopes that things would get back to normal, but it still seems like having huge gatherings will be bad idea for the next few months. Even as Governor Murphy has allowed groups of less than 500, hosting a crowd of that size doesn't make economic sense for a food festival.

The Red Bank Guinness Oyster Fest was scheduled for Sunday, September 27th, while the Red Bank International Beer, Wine & Food Festival was scheduled for Sunday, October 18th. No makeup dates have been announced for either festival, but RUE just said they will be back next year.

On a bit of a side note, the founder of RUE included a plea for help in their email - a local surfer suffered a tragic accident on the Fourth of July, and ended up paralyzed from the waist down. A Facebook fundraiser has been set up, and they're about 30% shy of their goal. I know times are tough for us all, but if you can, help.