Rainy Forecast Cancels Swamptoberfest For 2023

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Yet another rainy weekend has caused the cancellation of the annual Swamptoberfest celebration in Swampscott.

Town officials said on Thursday that the festival — which had already been postponed once because of rain — will not happen on the make-up date scheduled for Saturday.

"Due to the wet weather predicted for Saturday, we've decided to cancel Swamptoberfest," officials said. "We know that Swamptobefest has become a tradition over the past few years. However, we're already hard at work on other wonderful events that will be coming your way."

Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald told the Select Board on Wednesday night that while he did not want to cancel the event altogether, moving it a second time would pit it against other fall town events.

"The logistics of getting all of the bands, the equipment, it's a lot more complicated than folks realize," he said. "I would love to see it rescheduled. I hate to cancel events. I like just to reschedule them."

The Swampscott townwide yard sale and Porchfest music event planned for Saturday were still on as scheduled as of Thursday morning. The rain date for Porchfest is Sunday.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)