There were a record 700 East Anglian festivals in 2019 but sadly 2020 has not been a good year! We only have 68 live festivals currently still listed as planning to run this year in Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk. These will have to be run to the recently introduced stringent new Event Industry Forum and Government Health Guidelines (The EAFN has also produced a high level list of COVID 19 Health Risk Assessment measures)
Before the Pandemic started we listed dates for 460 East Anglian Festivals. Only 24 took place live before the COVID-19 restrictions came in and we have registered 368 cancellations until next year. Many hadn’t arranged dates and put their events off until 2021. Going on the Figures for 2019 we estimate that 90% cancelled 2020 dates until 2021. On the positive side there were 54 online Festivals provided this year.
Our Festival Community is amazing and we are confident that our fantastic Organisers, Venues, Suppliers, Traders and Performers will bounce back. We wish the best of luck to those who are struggling and the EAFN will continue to support the EAFN community through this Annus Horribillis and beyond.
