June 29, 2020 — The 15th Annual edition of the Stueart Pennington World Championship Running Of The Tubs bathtub races scheduled for July 11 was postponed Monday until 2021 because of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, organizers announced.
“The increasing number of people nationwide who are testing positive for the virus led us to make this decision,” said Visit Hot Springs CEO Steve Arrison. “We really regret having to postpone the bathtub races, but we want to ensure that our citizens and visitors remain safe. The necessity for safe social distancing was something we believed we just couldn’t enforce for an event that spans the length of our famous Bathhouse Row.
“We’ll announce the 2021 date for the races sometime early next year.
“Meanwhile, we encourage everyone to follow the advice of Governor Asa Hutchinson and our public-health experts and continue to wear face covering and maintain social distancing when out in public.”
“Hot Springs will welcome visitors to join our city residents next summer when we will resume what we call ‘the cleanest event in the state,’” said Bill Solleder, marketing director for Visit Hot Springs and coordinator of the races.
The races have been held, beginning in 2005, on Central Avenue along World Famous Bathhouse Row in downtown Hot Springs.
Sponsored by Visit Hot Springs and The Bathhouse Soapery, The Running Of The Tubs is open to teams in the Traditional Tubs Division, the Modified Tubs Division and Stock Tubs in which undecorated bathtubs are provided for competitors lacking the resources to put together an entry, according to Solleder.
The Running Of The Tubs is a celebration of Hot Springs’ historic past when the city proclaimed, “We Bathe The World!” in its famed natural thermal waters and is named in honor of Stueart Pennington, a well-known and respected downtown businessman. The event consists of teams pushing actual bathtubs — on wheels of course — down Central Avenue, in front of Bathhouse Row, in Historic Downtown Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas.
For more information contact Steve Arrison, 501-321-2027.