The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the U.K. largest arts festival and the launchpad for countless comedy and stage acts, will be shelved this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Organizers confirmed in a statement Wednesday afternoon that the event, which was set to run through August in Scotland, will not be held this year.

“Today’s decision that the Fringe will not go ahead as planned was not taken lightly. We have spent the past month listening to a broad cross-section of Fringe participants, as well as to government, healthcare professionals, residents and many more; however, in light of present circumstances it was unavoidable. Public health must and always will come first,” said Fringe chief executive Shona McCarthy.

“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.”

More to come.

Source: Read Full Article