COVID-19 has claimed yet another event.

The largest event in Kingfisher has been canceled as City of Kingfisher and Kingfisher Chamber of Commerce officials announced Tuesday that the annual Christmas parade and fireworks display has been canceled.

The event was scheduled to take place Dec. 5.

“We just couldn’t see any way to mitigate the risk and comply with guidelines for public gatherings,” City Manager Dave Slezickey said.

The continual growth in the event’s size worked to its detriment this year.

“When you have the possibility of 10,000 to 13,000 people in town, the numbers were the driving factor in the decision,” said Chamber of Commerce Director Shauna Rupp.

“With people around us canceling our events, there was the potential for our event to be even bigger and we just couldn’t get around that.”

Rupp said the chamber and city “worked together” in making the decision and looked at a number of alternatives before deciding to cancel.

“We had to make the call with the safety of everyone in mind,” she said. “We feel this is the best call at this time.”