Festival Cancellations Escalate as Mass Gatherings Cancelled for Summer

All Together Now

Festival Cancellations Escalate as Mass Gatherings Cancelled for Summer

Body and Soul, All Together Now, Great Music in Irish Houses and Longitude among cancellations.

Following the Government’s announcement yesterday (21 April) that events in excess of over 5,000 people should not take place up to the end of August, a number of major festivals have announced cancellation.

All Together Now, which was meant to take place on 2–4 August, said ‘it’s with great sadness we announce that this year’s All Together Now will not be able to take place…. This will no doubt have severe implications​ on everyone involved from artists, ​technicians, crew, suppliers, traders, charity partners​ ​and all those who work year-round to make the festival happen and just as importantly, our amazing audience for whom festivals are a place of freedom, inspiration and escapism.

The festival said that festival tickets for this year will be valid for All Together Now next year and asked ticket-holders to keep their tickets as this will ‘go a long way to our survival through these challenging times’.

Avril Stanley, founding director of Body&Soul festival, said ‘I am heartbroken to confirm that Body&Soul 2020 cannot go ahead due to updated Covid-19 restrictions guidelines  … While the impact of this decision creates ripples throughout our creative community spread across the globe, Body&Soul’s top priority lies in keeping its artists, attendees, staff and extended community healthy and safe, and we absolutely respect the government’s decision.’

The Great Music in Irish Houses classical music festival, which takes places in June, has also been cancelled. The festival said ‘Our hope is that much of this year’s programme will be able to take place in 2021, and we are working very hard with artists and venues to make this work. This year, 2020, marks the 50th anniversary of Great Music in Irish Houses, and we still hope to mark this significant milestone with a musical celebration later this year.’

Other festivals that have cancelled include LongitudeSea Sessions, Indiependence, Sunstroke, Life Festival, Saltwater and Boyle Arts Festival.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland today, Colm Croffy, Executive Director of the Association Of Irish Festival Events, said that there will be a loss of at least €85m to the economy due to the cancellation of summer events and the situation threatens over eleven thousand jobs.

There has yet to be any clarification from Government regarding smaller events. For more on the Government announcement see here.

Published on 22 April 2020

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