The organizers of a traditional summer dance festival in Okinawa in southwestern Japan have decided to postpone it due to a resurgence of the coronavirus in the island prefecture.

The festival in Okinawa City is the largest of its kind in the prefecture and features a street performance of a traditional dance called the eisa. Before the event was cancelled in 2020 and '21 due to the pandemic, it attracted more than 300,000 people per year.

The organizers of the event planned to hold it for the first time in 3 years on August 20 and 21, unless Okinawa was under a coronavirus state of emergency.

But they decided on Thursday to postpone the festival, as the prefecture has seen new cases climb to record highs this week.

The organizers said they determined it would be extremely difficult to maintain proper antivirus measures throughout the event.

They said they will decide if and when it can be rescheduled after monitoring the situation.