Thousands of people will have to satisfy their crustacean cravings somewhere other than Bradley Beach this Labor Day, after the Monmouth County Shore town cancelled its popular Lobsterfest for the second time in three years.

Mayor Gary Englestad said the borough could not meet three demands by the Asbury Park-based Passion Group, which took over last year as the organizer of the borough’s two main summer events, the Lobsterfest, held every Labor Day for more than a decade, and the borough’s Memorial Day Festival, an annual event that includes a parade.

The two-day Lobsterfest is said to draw some 75,000 lobster lovers a year.

Englestad said the Borough Council voted Tuesday night to exercise the cancellation clause in the contract with the Passion Group, following a Jan. 17 letter from the company expressing its desire for three basic changes to its two-year operating agreement signed last year: drop the unprofitable Memorial Day festival; extend the more lucrative Lobsterfest by an additional day; and add a tent that would serve beer and wine, after recent festivals had been alcohol-free.

The mayor insisted that the Lobsterfest’s cancellation would not spell the end of summer fun in Bradley Beach, and he said a borough festival committee would meet on Feb. 6 to begin planning. The borough would continue to have its Memorial Day Parade, though it was possible it could be moved from its traditional route along Ocean Avenue on Saturday to Main Street on Monday.

“Memorial Day will still be a very special day in Bradley Beach,” Englestad said. “It’ll just be a little bit different.”

The Passion Group did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

This is the second time in three summers that the smell of lobster tails, lemon and melted butter won’t mark the end of summer in Bradley Beach, after the festival was cancelled in 2018.

Borough officials had to hang up their lobster bibs that year after its then-sponsor, the Bradley Beach Chamber of Commerce, failed to follow state and federal rules for charitable events, a festival faux pas that was followed by the Passion Group’s two-year contract to run the Lobsterfest and the Memorial Day Festival.

Englestad acknowledged that the Lobsterfest did showcase the borough’s summertime attractions to tens of thousands of visitors, as well as netting a $30,000 fee from the Passion Group last year that was distributed to local charities.

But he said the crowding, the mess and other disruptions accompanying the festival were things many residents would not miss.

“The reality is, it just outgrew our little beachfront," Englestad said. “One of the things I always heard from residents is, ‘What do we get from these festivals?’”

Put-upon residents aren’t the only ones glad the lobster feast is cancelled. Siegrid Berman, a vegetarian who lives in Warren County, decried the slaughter of any animal, and said the way lobsters are cooked is particularly horrifying.

“Boiling living animals alive is incredibly cruel and barbaric," Berman wrote in an email to NJ Advance Media. “The lobster slaughter SHOULD be stopped."

NOTE: This story was updated to include a vegetarian’s comments.

Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.