Changwon officials have decided to cancel the 59th annual Jinhae Geunhangjae Festival.

Held in March and April in the areas of Jinhae-gu in Changwon City and Joongwon Rotary, it’s the largest cherry blossom festival in South Korea.

Changwon officials had studied ways to hold the festival according to social distancing guidelines, however, announced today that it would be canceled again this year.

They had looked at doing a vehicle non-face-to-face festival, or a highly reduced on-site and mostly online festival.

Last year at the onset of COVID-19, the city discouraged everyone from visiting the area and instead released video footage of the area.

Locals also didn’t want to host the festival this year with 85% of 600 respondents disagreeing with holding the festival this year.

Jinhae will also discourage people from visiting the area this year and will not provide parking areas or public toilets, and will crackdown on illegal street vendors.