Supersonic revellers in 2019
Supersonic Festival in Birmingham is the latest event axed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Getintothis’ Peter Guy reports.
Supersonic Festival 2020 has been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The festival, which is based in Birmingham revealed their first wave of artists for the 2020 edition which included A.A.Williams, Algiers, Blanck Mass and headliner Richard Dawson a few weeks ago.
However, organisers have today issued a statement saying: “We are heartbroken to inform you that Supersonic Festival 2020 will be cancelled, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.”
The festival was also set to feature sets by Swedish black noise collective Bada – led by Anna Von Hausswolff, Curl (a project including Mica Levi, Coby Sey and Brother May), Harrga, Ka Baird and visionary producer Klein.
Supersonic was also due to move to a new home in Digbeth, on July 17-19, welcoming the likes of Lankum, Oozing Wound, Orchestra of Constant Distress (an assemblage of members of The Skull Defekts, Brainbombs and No Balls), Danish sound artist Puce Mary and São Paulo artist Rakta.
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However, the entire event is now cancelled. Here’s the statement by organisers in full.
“We are heartbroken to inform you that Supersonic Festival 2020 will be cancelled, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This was a difficult decision to make, but we know it is the right one in the context of this unprecedented, global public health situation. Our top priority is to protect the health and wellbeing of our incredible team, our artists, audiences and our volunteers – and to do our part to keep pressure off our public health services.
“As you may well be aware music venues, theatres and cinemas are now closed, and several major music festivals in the UK and across the world have already been cancelled. The UK government and Public Health England have indicated that restrictions may need to remain in place for several months. There is so much uncertainty around how this situation is unfolding – it makes it nearly impossible to plan and produce a festival in July.
“Furthermore, our event insurance would not cover us for any changes necessary as a result of Coronavirus and therefore Capsule (the organisation that produces Supersonic Festival) would have had to bear the financial liability of cancelling our event. Given these considerable compound risks, we have regretfully decided that we have no alternative but to cancel this year’s festival at this stage.We have come to this conclusion after extensive consultation with our board, funders, partners and the artists in the festival, who all agree this is the right thing to do.
Supersonic Festival 2020
“For us this decision is devastating. The team have been working so hard behind the scenes – we had an amazing line up and had also secured a brand-new location for the festival this year. But we are making this decision to protect the future existence of the organisation. We want to be here in the future and we will be back with another incredible festival in 2021.
“As an organisation we have weathered a fair bit over our 20 years, but we have never experienced anything on this scale.
“You can help us to continue our work of crafting extraordinary events for curious audiences, helping us to support artists and our freelance workers by donating what you can. HERE
“You can also support the artists who were due to perform at Supersonic this July via buying their music directly from them – we’ve put a list together HERE.”
Refund options are all available on the Supersonic website.
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