South Beach food festival postponed over COVID concerns. Here are the new dates

Miami Beach’s massive food festival, which draws tens of thousands to South Florida every year, has decided to push back its events until late spring.

The South Beach Wine & Food Festival, which announced last month it would go on as an in-person event, will now be held May 20-23, instead of the middle of February, the festival’s founder and director said Tuesday.

“I felt it was in everyone’s best interest,” founder Lee Schrager said. “With the vaccine so close, why not wait and try to deliver the best experience and keep it safe and comfortable for everyone?”

Reactions were mixed to the festival’s announcement that it would go on in February as an in-person event, while COVID-19 cases were surging in South Florida, Schrager said. He started talking to all the parties involved the morning after Thanksgiving and got commitments from chefs and other talent for a May event. Stars such as Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud and Giada de Laurentiis, the honoree at next year’s tribute dinner, all signed on. The city of Miami Beach approved the new dates Tuesday, he said.

Since then, several drug makers announced that a vaccine for preventing the novel coronavirus was imminent and could start to be distributed to healthcare workers in Miami as soon as this month.

“I think we should err on the side of safety and comfort for everybody,” Schrager said.

The festival will still be a pared-down affair — though not a small one. Schrager expects about 20,000 to attend events from Miami-Dade to Palm Beach counties over the course of four days, down from the usual 65,000.

Nothing else about the protocols the festival announced last month to reduce the spread of the coronavirus will change.

The large, outdoor events that are the festival’s hallmarks will still go on at a reduced capacity. Gatherings will be broken up into two sessions, with an hour-long cleaning period in between.

Events such as the cookoff competition Burger Bash, which usually hosts 4,000 people under a blocks-long beachside tent, will be limited to two sessions of 1,000 people each, including staff. And they will not be under a tent to allow for better air circulation, Schrager said.

The festival’s plan to curb coronavirus transmissions includes one-way lines, like at the supermarket, a mask requirement except while seated, health screening and temperature checks, no communal food and no “meet and greet” opportunities with celebrities.

Smaller dinners will still be part of the festival. But festival goers will be seated at individual tables depending on their party’s size. Guests who want to sit together will have to buy tickets together.