Breaking: The Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2020 has been cancelled

As if enough plugs weren’t already being pulled, it has been announced that the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2020 has been cancelled in response to the recent coronavirus outbreak. It is the first time the world-famous event will not take place in the city in more than 70 years.

In the official statement, Chief Executive of Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society Shona McCarthy said that the Festival “must pause and take stock in the face of something far bigger”.

She continued: “Our thoughts today are with the doctors, nurses, health and social care professionals on the front line, as well as all those affected by this dreadful pandemic.

“Our sympathies too are with the thousands of artists and participants directly affected by today’s decision – we will do everything we can to support you over the coming months.”

See you in 2021 🙁

The statement continues: “We are working hard to mitigate the impact of this decision on Fringe artists and audience members. Today we are committing to refunding all participant registration fees, as well as refunding the Fringe tickets and Friends memberships purchased by our audience members. We are also offering participants who have already paid the alternative of rolling their show registration forward to the 2021 Fringe to cover an equivalent show listing.”

Alongside The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, The Edinburgh Art Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Edinburgh International Festival and The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo were all scheduled to go ahead in the usual August slot, but organisers have now confirmed that none of these events will be going ahead.

You can read the full statement here.