Photo from the Decatur Beach Party Facebook page.

This story has been updated. 

Due to popular demand, Decatur’s annual Beach Party is making a comeback after taking a one-year hiatus in 2015 to make way for the Slide the City event.

Slide the City, an event that unrolled a 1,000-foot water slide in downtown Decatur, won’t be back this year after a bumpy roll out, Decatur Business Association President Tim Martin said.

The Beach Party returns June 17. The DBA will supply the sand, games, music and more. It is a ticketed event and the DBA’s main fundraiser each year.

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“Obviously there was a huge demand for it to come back and we’re very excited to bring it back this year,” Martin said. “It’s going to be bigger and better than ever.”

Martin made the announcement prior to Mayor Patti Garrett’s State of the City speech on Jan. 26.

Slide the City was intended to raise funds for the DBA. But due to an unfortunate coincidence, a county grass cutting crew hit a fire hydrant on Henderson Mill Road on the Thursday before the event which led to days of low water pressure and put the county under a boil water advisory. The city had to shut down the slide early, at 1 p.m. on July 25, due to DeKalb’s inability to resolve the issue, and it was rescheduled for September. The event was also moved from West Ponce de Leon to McDonough Street, which has a steeper hill.

The DBA had sold about 3,600 tickets for the event.

Martin did not rule out the possibility that Slide the City could return at some point.

“It was great,” Martin said. “It was really an opportunity to take a break from the Beach Party to kind of see what people really wanted.”

Garrett joked about the event during her speech.

“We launched a new event this year, twice,” Garrett said. “I think we learned that there are two really important components to an event like that: water and incline. I enjoyed sliding with my 7-year-old granddaughter and who knows, we may have some different events and new events this year.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story contained incorrect information about admission for the Beach Party. This story has been updated with the correct information. 

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