By MADDY VITALE
Boats in the Night in Venice parade in Ocean City sought cover and headed to shore, docking at the Bayside Center and other boat slips along the route, as lightning flashed overhead and thunder rumbled over the bay on Saturday evening.
Some people on the boats in the parade and some spectators on shore questioned the city’s decision to hold the parade, when forecasts warned that there was a strong likelihood that powerful storms would hit Ocean City and surrounding areas.
Local realtor Rich Baehrle, who also had a boat in the parade, turned to social media to criticize the city for not canceling the event.
“Ocean City Night in Venice should have been called off — extremely disappointed. Our theme was “Rocky Knocks Out Windmills.” We quit after the Gardens Lagoon. I have never seen more lightning in my life,” Baehrle said in a Facebook post. “You mean to tell me with all the radar the Coast Guard has, they did not have enough sense to call it off. I have metal everywhere on my boat — a sitting lighting rod. Putting people’s lives in danger is senseless.”
As the claps of thunder came, along with flashes of lightning and looming black clouds, the city called for a delay and boats docked. In about 20 minutes, the storm was over and the boats went back out to finish the parade, Ocean City spokesman Doug Bergen said in an email Monday.
In all, there were a total of 110 boats that participated and 175 homes that were decorated. Retired Action News anchor Jim Gardner, the grand marshal, to just about all the Philly sports mascots, the Flyers Gritty, the Phillie Phanatic, Eagles Swoop and Philadelphia Union’s Phang, were all part of the spectacle and celebration on the water.
Bergen explained that the decision “to move forward with the parade was made in consultation with local meteorologists who, at 4 p.m., were not certain at all where the storms would hit.”
“All participants in the parade were kept apprised of the forecast via marine radio and advised to be prepared to seek a temporary port,” Bergen said in the email. “The captains were updated frequently as the storm moved toward the coast and advised to stop as it approached.”
One local meteorologist, Nick Pittman, responded to Baehrle’s Facebook post saying, there was a “safety plan in place.”
“I gave my recommendation to move it by an hour to avoid what was coming, but I’m assuming it would have been a logistical nightmare to get that info out there,” Pittman said in his own Facebook comments.
He continued in the post, “We were monitoring the situation very closely and were tracking the storms in real-time. The order to find a nearby dock was given well in advance of the storms barreling down on Ocean City. Sure, it was a heck of a storm, but every captain should have been aware of the safety plan.”
While some posters agreed with Baehrle, others said boaters could have retreated as he did, whenever they wished.
Yet others asked why the event wasn’t rescheduled.
Bergen answered that question.
“There are so many moving parts,” he said. “It’s always been impossible to reschedule Night in Venice.”
The theme for this year’s boat parade was, “It’s a Philly Thing.” And the boaters and spectators showed their grit and toughness as the storm looked like a lightshow over the bay. However, some fled the parade, especially as wind-swept rain started to go sideways.
Others went for cover under a pavilion at Bayside Center, one of the prime vantage points for watching the boat parade. An Ocean City police officer warned the media on the dock that they should seek cover as well since the storm was directly “on top of you.”
Bergen said that in the end, the thunderstorm also proved the strength of the community, with the homeowners willing and happy to assist the boaters.
“Many bayfront homeowners showed incredible hospitality and brought parade participants into their homes after they tied up on nearby docks,” Bergen said. “The storm passed in about 20 minutes, and the parade resumed on what turned out to be a beautiful, cool and clear evening. The fireworks went off as scheduled.”
Night in Venice, Ocean City’s premier summer event, serves as an important family-friendly attraction in the resort and has since 1907.
The only year that it wasn’t held was in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
With that exception, it has been held every year since 1954, when the parade became what it is today. That was when it was revived as part of Ocean City’s 75th anniversary, Bergen said.
The first Night in Venice in 1907 was held with the U.S. Coast Guard leading a parade of boats, while bungalows along the bay were illuminated with lights and torches.
There was a fireworks display at the end of the parade and a bonfire on one of the islands in the bay, Bergen said. Night in Venice became an annual event again for another period in the 1920s.
