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Read the press release here.

SantaCon Will No Longer Take Place in Bushwick, Organizers Say

By Serena Dai | November 19, 2014 6:50pm
 People dressed as Santa walk down the street during SantaCon 2012. 
People dressed as Santa walk down the street during SantaCon 2012. 
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flickr/Dave Bledsoe

BUSHWICK — SantaCon won't be sleighing through Bushwick, after all.

Organizers of the annual costumed holiday pub crawl said in a statement Wednesday evening that they've decided Bushwick's not big enough for the event, which drew nearly 30,000 people last year to the East Village and the Lower East Side.

City officials had already denied the crawl use of Maria Hernandez Park as a kick-off space, saying that the park didn't have the capacity for SantaCon, as DNAinfo New York reported earlier.

"We appreciate local businesses' willingness to work with our charity event and we thank all of them for their support," an organizer said in a statement. "SantaCon is an absurdist celebration of the holiday season and we look forward to working with all the communities that our event visits."

AM New York first reported SantaCon's decision to move.

The controversial crawl had already been blasted by locals, businesses and elected officials for being "repulsive" and "out of control" after word broke on Monday that it would happen in Bushwick.

Councilman Rafael Espinal encouraged bar owners to boycott it. Several bars, including Kings County Bar, Left Hand Path and Roberta's, also publicly announced their plan to ban people participating in "the puke-filled pub crawl."

"We find it repulsive," said Left Hand owner Travis Boettcher. "We wanted to go on the record to say that participants in this event are not welcome at our bar — or even our neighborhood, quite frankly.”

SantaCon organizers did not say where the crawl will now be held.