The 2020 Aspiring Conversations festival of ideas is cancelled.

The festival team today announced that the Wanaka-based Aspiring Conversations festival of ideas , which was to take place from April 3-5, cannot go ahead in light of new Government measures banning events involving more than 500 people. To date, the festival has issued more than 2700 tickets to this year's events.

Festival Director Philip Tremewan said, “This has been a difficult time for all of us, and, like many of you, we have been closely monitoring the unfolding situation with COVID-19 (coronavirus) with public health at the forefront of our minds.

“We share our audience’s and our community’s disappointment that we will be unable to present our weekend of ideas, discussion and debate.”

He thanked all those involved in the festival, including audiences, sponsors, supporters, grant-makers and members of the wider community for their support of the festival, and for their understanding at what is an unprecedented time.

All ticketholders will be contacted shortly with information regarding refunds. For ticket holders who want to support future festivals, there will be an option to donate part or all of the value of their ticket back to the Southern Lakes Arts Festival Trust, which runs both Aspiring Conversations and the biennial Festival of Colour.

Philip said planning for next year’s Festival of Colour arts festival (April 12 – 18 2021) was well under way. “We can all look forward to the Festival of Colour as a time for feeding our hearts and minds with the power of the arts,” he said.

The Aspiring Conversations festival of ideas, featuring 11 speaker sessions and performances, had been scheduled to take place in Wanaka from April 3-5.

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