For the second straight year, the New York International Auto Show has been cancelled. In a statement Wednesday afternoon, auto show president Michael Schienberg announced that the convention was being canceled due to spiking COVID-19 cases due to the highly-contagious delta variant.

Schienberg said, “As custodians of the 121-year-old New York Auto Show, we are committed to providing a safe environment for everyone including attendees, exhibitors, and the thousands of men and women who put the Show together. Over the past few weeks, and especially within the last few days, circumstances have changed making it more difficult to create an event at the high standard that we and our clients expect. The Covid pandemic has challenged our City, the country and the entire world, but just like the automobile industry, we know that the New York Auto Show will rebound and be bigger and better than before.”

The auto show was founded in 1900 and is one of the auto industry’s most popular conventions with more than 1 million attendees each year. This year’s event was set to begin on Aug. 20, just one day before the highly anticipated “We Love NYC” concert in Central Park. It’s not clear if organizers of that show, or other upcoming shows in NYC, will be making similar decisions to postpone or cancel events.

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