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The city’s annual National Night Out event will have to wait a couple of months thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event has been moved to Oct. 6 at the recommendation of the National Association of Town Watch, the founder of National Night Out.

The previously scheduled date was Aug. 4. The event is typically held on the first Tuesday in August.

The format of the event will also change this year to celebrate togetherness, according to National Night Out committee chair Diana Klink.

“It provides a great opportunity to bring people together under positive circumstances,” she said. “Together is especially how we’ll be celebrating this year.”

Klink said the city will hold one combined citywide event, rather than the typical individual communities.

“Over many months, we’ve been unable to socialize and interact with one another, and we all desperately miss our friends and neighbors,” Klink said. “This year’s event will also be one where rather than community organizers working hard to coordinate their individual events, they also can just join in the fun.”

Klink added, “We will all celebrate together and enjoy one another’s company on a fall evening with our first responders who have played such a vital role during the pandemic, as well as special guest speakers, family-friendly entertainment and activities, and more.”

Klink said more details on the time, location and features would be released later in the summer.

National Night Out was conceived as a “going-away party for crime” that encouraged neighbors in communities across the country to lock their doors, turn on their porch lights and get outside to fellowship with their neighbors and law enforcement officers.

For more information, call Klink at 514-4104 or email her at dklink@suffolkva.us.