LUMBERTON — The City of Lumberton recently announced the cancellation of the annual Alive After 5 series, which was scheduled to begin May 6.

“It is with deep regret that the City of Lumberton has decided to cancel our May bookings for the 2021 Alive After 5 Concert Series,” a city statement posted on social media reads in part.

This will be the second year the event has been cancelled, with the main culprit being safety restrictions imposed by the state government because of COVID-19.

“Even though we meet the square footage requirement at our concert venue, there is a 100-person cap for outside mass gatherings in N.C.,” the city statement continues. “Even though we expect restrictions to be relaxed SOME by the end of the month, we don’t expect them to allow us full capacity by May.”

Alive After 5 organizers said the series typically draws 900 to 1,200 spectators, which would not be in compliance with Gov. Roy Cooper’s latest executive order.

“This is unfortunate, but at this point there is really nothing we can do but comply and hope our June events will hold,” the statement reads in part.

One by one the seven musical performances scheduled for the annual Alive After 5 concert series were canceled or postponed in 2020 because of government restrictions prohibiting large outdoor gatherings. The series is held annually in Lumberton’s downtown plaza and this year’s lineup was a mirror image of last year’s.

Early this year downtown leaders decided to move forward with the planning stages of city-sanctioned events, with the hope that COVID-19 restrictions imposed by state government would be lifted.

The Lumberton Food Truck Festival and Arts on Elm are still scheduled to take place April 24 in downtown Lumberton.