18 March 2020

It is with regret that we have taken the very difficult but ultimately inevitable decision to cancel the 2020 Norfolk & Norwich Festival.

With the rapidly escalating health-crisis and with the safety of our audiences, staff and artists at heart, we have taken the decision that it is impossible for us to deliver the Festival this May.

Norfolk & Norwich Festival brings tens of thousands of people together in celebration – it has been doing this for nearly 250 years. We are deeply saddened that we will not be able to do that in 2020. Thank you to all those staff, artists, volunteers, supporters and funders who have put in so much work already, and to all our audiences who, like us, were looking forward to this year’s Festival.

If you have booked a ticket for the Festival, you do not need to do anything. You are entitled to a refund and we will be in touch soon. Please bear with us during this difficult time. If you have the capacity to make a donation of part or all of your ticket value, we would be extremely grateful – it would help ensure we’re well-placed to support artists and be able to present future Festivals.

If you haven’t booked a ticket yet, but would like to make a donation to support our work, again we would be very grateful – you can do so here.

Make a donation

We deeply value our place in both the local and artistic communities and during this difficult period, we will unreservedly play our part in supporting the artistic sector. Over the coming days and weeks we will look at how we, as an Arts Council funded organisation, do the right thing by staff, artists and freelance workers.

You can read our full press release here

Please bear with us. See you all again soon,
The Festival Team