COVID Cancels NYE Peach Drop In Atlanta For Second Year: Underground Atlanta

ATLANTA, GA — The Peach Drop is off, again.

Less than two weeks after officials with Underground Atlanta and the City of Atlanta announced that the New Year’s Eve tradition would restart this Dec. 31 after a two-year hiatus, the event was canceled due to COVID-19.

“In consultation with public health officials we have made the very difficult decision to cancel the Peach Drop,” a tweet from Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said.

“Due to the rising number of Covid cases, the City is canceling the Peach Drop at Underground,” a statement from Underground Atlanta officials said on social media.

In 2019, Bottoms put the event on hold with the goal of finding a better location. The onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, as large gatherings were prohibited by Bottoms’ executive order, made the New Years’ Eve event a non-starter.

Last week Bottoms reinstated a citywide mask mandate for indoor spaces as COVID-19 cases surged with the new, more transmissible omicron variant came into view, threatening to overtake delta as the dominant strain.

Monday, the Georgia Department of Public Health reported COVID-19 positive numbers similar to April 2020, when public locations and private businesses were closed and the public sheltered in place.

Now Georgia also is reporting an increase in children under the age of 17 being infected with the omicron variant. In years past, despite the time, many parents brought their older children to watch the Peach Drop.

This will make the second cancellation in two years due to COVID-19.