[PRESS RELEASE]

CHRISTMAS DANCE FESTIVAL 2020

With much sadness and regret, the Committee of Management of Christmas Dance Festival has agreed that the 2020 Festival must be cancelled. It has weighed heavily on the Committee of Management that in its 35th edition, the current world crisis has forced us to make this decision. Also that so many dancers and coaches have worked so hard for an entire season in order to give themselves the chance to perform at Christmas Dance Festival. Nonetheless, we are agreed that this is the right decision for our staff, members, volunteers, dancers, spectators and partners. We have taken this decision after much deliberation, and after as thorough an evaluation that we and the Festival staff have been able to conduct since the COVID-19 outbreak started to have an impact on normal life. In so doing we have considered a number of factors, including the following:

• Latest Government guidance, in particular stricter travel restrictions, and social distancing requirements, and the withdrawal of emergency services support for mass gatherings
• Our operational options and their implications, both practical and financial.

Our highest concerns have been the health and safety of all those involved in the staging and running of Christmas Dance Festival, as well as wider public health and the Festival’s role in society’s efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The financial implications of cancellation will be significant indeed, not only for Christmas Dance Festival, but for our contractors and suppliers. It is now our task to work diligently in the coming weeks to ensure that tChristmas Dance Festival, our suppliers and contractors can emerge safe and sound on the other side of this tumultuous period and welcome the world of DanceSport back to Oslo in 2021.

We appreciate that the cancellation of Christmas Dance Festival will come as a huge disappointment to many involved in the world of DanceSport, particularly given that event after event has been cancelled already this year. However, no matter how passionate we are about our sport, we are also mindful that there are now more significant issues at stake than the staging of sporting events. In this context, it is our hope that all concerned will understand our decision. We all know and cherish the fact that our sport is more than a community – it is a family. We encourage all in the dancing family to adhere to Government requirements on social distancing and guidance on good hygiene, and hope that by 2021 we are safely able, once again, to stage the world’s pre-eminent Christmas Dance Festival, in Oslo’s winter wonderland 11th & 12th December 2021.