Keswick Mountain Festival was due to take place in May
Keswick Mountain Festival will not take place this year, organisers have announced.
The festival, which was due to run over three days in May, has been postponed for 12 months.
A spokesperson for the festival said: “The Keswick Mountain Festival team has been liaising closely with exhibitors, suppliers, activity providers and event partners since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak.
“As it became clear that safely holding the festival in May was going to be impossible, options for rescheduling it to later in the year were thoroughly explored. Ultimately, organisers decided that this was not going to be feasible.
“Instead, the plan is that all of the sporting and outdoor events, taster activities and live entertainment in the 2020 line-up will instead feature during the new dates.”
Paul McGreal, festival co-owner and director, said: “The situation with Covid-19 has moved at a dramatic pace and it is crystal clear that we can’t go ahead as planned in May.
“We have worked tirelessly to find a solution to host the festival later this year and are really disappointed that this won’t be possible.
“We’re not a huge corporation, but a small independent business and team of five, who deliver Keswick Mountain Festival with the help of our amazing suppliers and partners. We’re acutely aware of the economic impact of not putting on the event this year, but after exhaustive exploration of every option, we know that we’ve made the right decision.
“Our long-term objective now is to work with all of our partners in the local area and events industry, to put on an even more incredible festival than usual when we return in 2021. In the meantime, making this decision now allows everyone to focus on what’s most important right now, which is looking after each other and getting through these really tough times.”
The festival will now run from 21-23 May 2021.
Organisers confirmed that existing bookings for sports events, outdoor activities, weekend, music, parking and camping for 2020 will automatically roll over to next year, but anyone who cannot make the 2021 dates and wants a refund, should email them by 31 May 2020 and a 100 per cent refund will be issued.
After that, they said standard terms and conditions will apply to refunds. People who have bought a ticket for a KMF event in the Theatre by the Lake will be sent separate instructions in the near future.
The spokesperson said: “Members of the public are reminded that the KMF team is small, so will process everything as quickly as they can, but please allow up to 10 working days for them to respond to emails.”
