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[Update] SantaCon Party Yachts CANCELLED, Forcing Countless SantaBros Ashore This Saturday

Ben Yakas

Published Dec 10, 2019

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Scott Heins/Gothamist

Ben Yakas

Published Dec 10, 2019

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Last week, we were ecstatic to report that SantaCon was launching a series of Fireball-sponsored party yachts for this year's event (happening this Saturday). It was the perfect solution to our SantaConundrum: everyone would be happy if all the SantaCon revelry was removed from the streets of Manhattan and quarantined to the high seas. Alas, 20,000 Drunks Urinating Into The Sea was not meant to be: the event has been cancelled.

Donald Liloia, Senior Vice President of NY Waterway (which manages Skyport Marina, where the boats would have docked), confirmed the news to Gothamist, which came after several local politicians sent a letter to their office to share their concerns about the event. "It has come to our attention that the marina will be serving as a SantaCon party site for over 2,000 partygoers on Saturday beginning at 11:00 a.m.," the letter, sent by Council Member Keith Powers, State Senator Brad Hoylman, Assembly Member Harvey Epstein and others, read.

"A full-day free event of this size, particularly one which attracts attendees likely to be intoxicated, will cause a substantial disturbance to neighbors," they continued. "In the past, our offices have heard from constituents bothered by the noise from party boats launching at the Skyport Marina, and we have been able to work together to successfully mitigate the disruption. This event is likely to be exponentially more disruptive than what our constituents have previously experienced, and we worry it will undo any goodwill earned from noise reductions in recent months."

According to the initial announcement for the yachts, which went out on Friday, SantaCon planned on having five party vessels, featuring live bands and DJs, which would have set forth out of Skyport Marina every hour. The announcement came with the sadly now-deleted promo below, which featured The Lonely Island classic, "I'm On A Boat" (but without any of the irony).

In the letter, the pols asked NY Waterway to explain in detail how they planned to "minimize the disruption to the surrounding area, manage security, and control anticipated crowds," and what "measures you will take to manage security, crowd control, and moving traffic."

Liloia said NY Waterway had started speaking to the group in the last couple days, but there was no way they were going to be able to pull the event off with such short notice. "In response to the community and everyone else's concerns, it's best they don't have it. They were fine with that," he said. "They really decided amongst themselves they didn't want to do it. They cancelled it...it takes more planning than they anticipated."

We've reached out to SantaCon for comment and will update if we hear back.

This year's NYC SantaCon is happening this Saturday, December 14th— as with previous years, the bar crawl's start location and route will not be revealed until shortly before the actual event, so you can check their Facebook page for updates on that (you can also check their website for more updates). Get more info about this year's event here so you can participate/flee accordingly.

Update: SantaCon NYC announced this morning that this year's event will kickoff at 10 a.m. at Father Duffy Square in Times Square. You can click here to check out their map of participating bars and venues, which includes places in Midtown, Murray Hill, Kips Bay, Flatiron, Gramercy Park, and the East Village.

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santacon 2019

drunk

traditions that bring out the worst in bridge and tunnel folks

santacon party yacht

santacon

Ben Yakas

Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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