The Japanese government’s coronavirus containment push has resulted in the cancellation of the popular Nagaoka fireworks show, which was slated to be part of the upcoming Honolulu Festival.
The technicians who are needed to operate the show said they don’t want to come to Hawaii because it would violate Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s recent call for residents to refrain from travel abroad and for event organizers to cancel events over the next two weeks.
Honolulu Festival Foundation organizers said Friday that the March 6-8 festival will go on as planned minus the fireworks evening finale, which was slated to light up the skies March 8 over Waikiki Beach.
The annual festival, now is its 26th year, still is expected to bring roughly 3,000 Japanese travelers to Hawaii and up to another 200 from other countries throughout the Asia-Pacific.
Hiroyuki “Keith” Kitagawa, president of the Honolulu Festival Foundation, said in a statement, “Unfortunately, we learned today that we will be unable to stage the fireworks show at this year’s Honolulu Festival. We know this is disappointing news for the many people who were looking forward to this tremendous fireworks celebration and ask for everyone’s understanding.”
“We completely support and respect the decision of the fireworks’ technicians and ask that others do so as well. They do a great job every year making the fireworks show an incredible finale of the Honolulu Festival,” Kitagawa said.
This isn’t the first festival event canceled this year. On Wednesday festival organizers called off the news conference in the wake of Abe’s plea for organizers of big sports and cultural events to consider canceling or postponing those planned for the next two weeks to assist efforts to stem rising coronavirus infections.
After China the coronavirus has hit South Korea and Japan the hardest in Asia.
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