After considering several potential alternative venues for the annual Budafest, city officials have decided against holding the event this year.

In light of multiple construction projects on Main Street in downtown Buda, Lysa Gonzalez, the city’s tourism director, said city staff in April began looking for other locations where the festival and parade could be held.

Buda Mill & Grain Co., City Hall and Pinballz were among the venues city officials considered.

At their Aug. 6 meeting, Buda City Council members voted 4-1, with Council Member Evan Ture dissenting, to cancel Budafest this year. Council members Ray Bryant and Paul Daugereau were absent.

“As we know, Buda has quite a bit of construction that is taking place and coming up in its future,” Gonzalez said.

Buda published a press release Aug. 9 announcing that the festival and parade will not be held this year, and that it would refund fees to vendors who had registered. The city is still planning to have the event in December 2020.

Ture said he would have liked the city to continue searching for options for the festival, even if it meant that the parade had to be removed from the schedule.

“I’d rather put on something; I think you would still get a lot of people to attend,” Ture said.

Gonzales, however, told City Council that she and other city staff did not want to organize an event that would not meet expectations set in previous years.

“[The parade] brings in the majority of people,” Gonzales said. “I’m not sure we would see as big of an impact.”