A Festival of Floats event scheduled for the first National Float Day on Sunday, July 30 on Mission Bay was canceled by organizers at the last minute.

“This event has never been permitted by the City of San Diego,” said José Ysea, City spokesperson and public safety media services manager. “There are several safety and legal concerns the City has with an event of this type. The City has explained the permitting process to the organizers. The organizers posted and stated their intention to postpone the event to explore permitting in 2024.”

The Festival of Floats on social media promoted local vendors and free food at the event, which was scheduled from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. between San Raphael and Santa Clara on Mission Bay.

“We wish we had better news for you fellow floaters, but unfortunately the City has reached out and made us aware of San Diego’s summer moratorium on special events at our beaches between Memorial Day and Labor Day,” said Kitty Meroni, Festival of Floats sponsor on the website floatfactory.co/pages/festival-of-floats/. “The good news is we are working with the City in hopes to bring together a great event for everyone to enjoy that will be better than anything we could ever imagine. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and are looking forward to floating with you all in the future in an even bigger way.”

Noting this would have been the third year in a row that her impromptu group has held a summer float fest, Meroni said it was unfortunate it had to be canceled because “It would have been a very positive event with no alcohol and local vendors and DJs as well as a clean-up crew coming that day and the next.”

She added: “We said it was an event for the community, by the community. We just wanted it to be a fun positive experience showcasing Mission Bay. It would have been nice just to bring the community together post-COVID and have a fun event with local vendors showcasing their local kombucha or sunglasses.”

“For the last six weeks, there have been (float) fliers posted on poles and put on cars all around PB referencing [their] website,” said PB resident Marcie Beckett. “In early July, PB Planning Group and several residents brought this event to the attention of the police and District 1 Councilmember Joe LaCava. Turns out the event had no permit and no chance of getting one. The police, lifeguards, and firefighters had developed a plan to deal with the event, but the City apparently convinced the promoter to cancel the event or face fines and citations.”

Beckett discussed the biggest arguments against the Festival of Floats, besides the event lacking a permit. “The cost of policing and lifeguards will be borne by the City (taxpayers), and the City doesn’t even have enough money to fix streets and sidewalks,” she said adding, “The event will lead to illegal drinking of alcohol in and around the bay, which makes it unsafe for participants and leads to tons of trash ending up in the bay.”

Of the canceled community float event, Councilmember LaCava said: “The City allows groups to take over public spaces all the time. But we have a process in place to protect the public’s safety. And how those regulations are applied depends on the nature of the event. This event was being proposed without any permit applied for or in hand.

“We (City) need to understand things like how many people you are expecting to come to the event, whether there will be any fencing to preclude the general public from using the public space for the event, whether alcohol is involved, etc.,” continued LaCava.

Pointing out something not generally known, said LaCava, is that a floating event of this nature “would also require a permit from the Coast Guard, because of the water portion, because of the number of folks involved being encouraged to come out and float on the open water. You would need a public safety component, and that means paying for both police and lifeguards. And the last component is, we do not allow these kinds of events during the summer moratorium.”