2020 Hornby Festival Cancelled Due to COVID-19 Global Pandemic
It is with sadness and heavy hearts that we announce that for the first time in 38 summers, the Hornby Festival will not run in 2020. We make this announcement in adherence and response to the request of Dr. Bonnie Henry, Provincial Health Officer for British Columbia, that there be no large gathering in BC in summer 2020, including festivals.
The health and safety of our community is at the centre of our decision-making and we agree with the assessment of Dr. Henry that running the Hornby Festival in this year would put our precious small community, audience, artists, volunteers and staff at risk. We know that the arts and culture are critical to a healthy and vibrant community, particularly in times of challenge and isolation and that so many people look forward to the Hornby Festival all year, so this was a very hard decision to make. Please know that it is the result of serious consideration.
We are now working hard to safeguard the Hornby Festival and make sure that it can make a healthy and vibrant return July 29 – August 7, 2021. As you would have heard in the national media, the arts, like many sectors, have been hit very hard. COVID-19 has created an unprecedented and devastating situation for musicians, technicians, arts organizations, and many other industry professionals. We are fortunate that the Hornby Festival has worked diligently for many years to put mechanisms in place for risk mitigation management. It is our hope that these will see us through. If you are able, we encourage you to support the arts industry however you can, whether that is volunteering or attending future events, purchasing merch, art or music online, or following and supporting your favourite performers and organizations on social media. If you feel inspired and are able to support the Hornby Festival, you can make a donation to the festival to help us weather this cancellation, please click here, or email us at generalmanager@hornbyfestival.bc.ca.
At this time, we would like to give a huge shout out to our artists (who are facing a massive loss of work and income), our volunteers, our festival team (staff and board), our loyal audience, our sponsors and donors, our funders and our beautiful community for all your amazing support.
We will greatly miss gazing from backstage at you all dancing with your friends and neighbours on a warm glorious summer night under the moonlight to some of the best music this world has to offer. That is one of our favourite things!
Stay safe through this time and we will see you again next year.
With so much love from the Hornby Festival team!
