Heavy rain and winds from Tropical Storm Hermine have forced the city to move Friday’s start of the Celebrate Oldsmar! festival to Sunday, while other weekend events remain on schedule.
With Tropical Storm Hermine pelting the Gulf coast for much of this week, the wet and windy weather has forced some changes to the City of Oldsmar’s weekend plans.
While it looked like the annual Oldsmar Days parade might be headed for a second disappointing postponement this year, the storm is expected to be out of the area by Saturday, meaning the parade is safe.
However, officials decided to move the opening day of this weekend’s Celebrate Oldsmar! festival from Friday to Sunday in order to be clear of any lingering effects of Hermine.
“Due to weather, Friday events are moved to Sunday,” a notice sent out on Wednesday afternoon said. “Saturday is the same.”
The change means Friday’s scheduled performance by the band Radio Crime, as well as a fireworks display, will now take place on Sunday, September 3, beginning at 6:00 p.m.
Saturday’s schedule, which includes the parade at 11 a.m. as well as a car show, live music by Feeling Groovy, the Superstars plus another fireworks show, is still on as planned.
The situation is about as good as one could hope for, as some tracking models of the storm had it hitting the Gulf coast of Florida, much closer to the Tampa Bay area.
As it happened Hermine, tracked farther north into the Panhandle, meaning the parade, and its special last-minute participant, was spared from a second postponement and possible cancellation.
“We’re keeping our fingers crossed the storm is out of here by Saturday,” Mayor Doug Bevis told Oldsmar Connect earlier this week. “We’d hate to have to postpone the parade again.”
When contacted on Wednesday for confirmation the parade was still on, Oldsmar centennial committee chair Dan Saracki gave an emphatic “Yes!!”
Also, the hand-cancelled stamp event is still on as planned for Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. at the post office on Tampa Road.
For more information on the Celebrate Oldsmar! festivities, visit myoldsmar.com or Oldsmar100.com.
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