After four years in the city, the Dew Tour skateboard competition and multi-day festival will relocate out of Long Beach for this year’s event, organizers announced Friday.

Organizers blamed the relocation of the popular event on the prevalence of COVID-19 in Los Angeles County, where coronavirus remains widespread despite recent decreases in new cases. The region can’t allow large-scale events until case counts come down significantly, according to the state’s tiered system that determines when areas may reopen.

Organizers said in a statement they were hopeful that a vaccine rollout might salvage the event in Long Beach, but the uncertainty of that that happening forced them to find another location, possibly outside of Southern California.

The new location has not yet been disclosed, but organizers said they are talking to a small group of interested cities—most of them out of state—with the infrastructure to host the event, an event representative said via email.

At the last event held in summer 2019, thousands of fans flocked to the Long Beach Convention Center to see some 300 of the world’s top skateboarders compete in the annual event, which served as the first global Olympic qualifying event in the U.S. before the Tokyo Games.

The 2020 event did not occur due to the pandemic.

IN PICTURES: Skaters soar through Long Beach with Olympic ambitions at the Dew Tour

 

In addition to moving the event out of the city and possibly the state, organizers of the Dew Tour also pushed back the date of the event for the second time. It was supposed to be held in May; the new location and date will be announced in coming weeks.

The extreme sports circuit still intends to serve as the U.S. Olympic qualifier before the Tokyo Summer Games, which was also rescheduled to July 23 due to the pandemic.

“Dew Tour Long Beach has been an incredible four years of support and celebration of skateboarding and we are truly grateful for our time there,” Dew Tour said in a statement.