Less than a week ago we were sat around a table discussing whether we should delay the launch and ticket sales of the festival because of Coronavirus. Fast forward to yesterday, and we found ourselves discussing the festival itself and whether it would be appropriate to carry on and deliver the event that we so desperately want to bring you.
With heavy hearts, we’re announcing today that BuckLitFest 2020 (BuckLitFive) will not go ahead as planned on 10-14 June 2020. In common with so many others in a similar position the literary world, this decision was incredibly difficult. We had been working tirelessly behind the scenes and had a truly exciting line-up that we were just itching to share with you.
However, health and wellbeing must come first, and we are acutely aware of the pressures that life will be throwing at all of us over the coming days, weeks and months. As unapologetic evangelists for the place of culture and the creative arts in stress management and their positive impact on mental wellbeing, we will continue to bring you news from the literary world, doing all we can to feature the stellar work of our brilliant writers in innovative ways, to try in some small way to help us through these troubled times.
Festival Director Christopher Woodhead echoes the thoughts and feelings of every member of the Festival Team: “Our festival family is incredibly saddened by today’s news. Ultimately though, we’d rather plough our efforts into ensuring that 2021’s festival is a show stopper, giving our authors, our audience, our sponsors, staff, volunteers and our festival friends the space they may need this year to cope with all that this horrible situation may throw at us.
Thank you for your support, stay safe and keep in touch – we look forward to seeing you in 2021.”
2021 seems a long way off, but don’t go anywhere. We’re going to be right here, looking for opportunities that will allow us to do something exciting between now and then. Stick with us while we work that out.