Art Deco Festival cancelled: Uncertainty over ongoing Covid Alert Levels forces decision
Less than 24-hours before the Art Deco Festival was originally due to start, organisers have decided to cancel the five-day event.
The decision this afternoon comes on the back of announcements made in the previous 48 hours that Wednesday and Thursday's events had been called off.
Art Deco Trust chair Barbara Arnott said: "With heavy heart, we believe this is the only possible option, having already been forced to cancel two of the five days of events".
On Sunday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announced Auckland will move to Covid-19 alert level three, and the rest of the country to alert level two from for three days until at least 11.59 tomorrow evening. An announcement on whether any changes will be made to alert levels is due tomorrow.
Arnott said the Government has given no indication today that there will be any reduction in Covid Alert Levels tomorrow night.
"Given the massive logistical efforts required to stage the festival successfully at this stage, the Trust cannot wait another twenty-four hours for tomorrow’s Government decision on whether or not the Alert Levels will be extended beyond midnight Wednesday.
“That is why we had to make the decision today,” Arnott said.
“We needed to give certainty to the hundreds of entertainers, artists, contractors, event venues and suppliers tonight so that they know where they stand. And for the sake of the thousands of
Festivalgoers, many of whom have accommodation and travel plans booked, it was imperative we made our decision today.”
She said it had been an "incredibly tough decision" and they have had to weigh up a huge number of factors and consider several different scenarios in the course of their deliberations.
“We fully appreciate that many Festivalgoers have already arrived in town and this decision is news they did not want to hear. We know they will be incredibly disappointed. So are we.”
“However, a festival of this scale is incredibly complex to put on, and having already lost two of the last three days available to us to pull together all the on-the-ground logistics like staging, lighting and sound, marquees, catering, and so forth, we have simply run out of time to delay our decision any longer. We wish we had a crystal ball to know what will happen to Alert Levels from tomorrow night,
but we don’t.”
Ticket holders will be contacted directly by the Festival’s booking agents Ticketek or iTicket with details of the ticket refund process.
“Yet again, we are all reminded of the considerable impact the Covid pandemic is having on our community and our country. Overseas, people can only dream of festivals and events. That’s what
has made this decision all the more challenging to make," Arnott said.
