We are sad to release news that Girvan Folk Festival, 2020 has had to be cancelled owing to the situation with the coronavirus. We are still trying to be positive, initially trying to not use the CANCELLED word, rather saying that Girvan Folk Festival is EXTENDED to 2021. But whilst being positive, we didn’t want to be confusing. To be absolutely clear – Girvan Festival Girvan Folk Festival 2020, which had been scheduled for 1st to 3rd May 2020, will not now take place.
The reason we considered using the word EXTENDED, was to reflect the fact that in several ways Girvan Folk Festival extends beyond the narrow confines of the May Bank Holiday Weekend. We have had some local outreach concerts throughout the year; last year we introduced a ‘Linger Longer’ strategy and had a concert in Culzean Castle in the week following the festival; this year we planned to initiate a three-year rolling project with local schools involving storytelling; we chose two themes – Travellers and The Musical links between Scotland and Ireland – anticipating some longer-term collaborations arising from these. All these plans are impacted by the uncertainty because of coronavirus, but these plans are still very much on the table and we have to believe that we can come out of this stronger for 2021 and beyond.
We also have fledgling twinning relationships with Bromyard Folk Festival and the Johnny Doherty Festival. These take place later in the year and hopefully by that time things will be back to normal. Nothing has yet been arranged, but there might be an opportunity to add a ‘Girvan Flavour’ to those events, with a few more people from Scotland heading south and west.