Chichester Festival has announced that all remaining productions at the theatre will be cancelled for 2020.
Chichester Festival had been due to reopen in July with South Pacific and The Unfriend; it is our intention to reschedule both shows in 2021.
We had been hoping to be able to produce at least some Festival 2020 shows in the summer and autumn, including The Life of Galileo and The Real Thing; but all the indications from government point to social distancing being in place for many months to come, as the country continues its vital fight against coronavirus while protecting the NHS. At this unprecedented time, we feel this is the most responsible course of action we can take in order to ensure the future resilience of our organisation as well as protecting our staff, artists and audiences.
We are currently considering a revised shorter programme of work from Autumn 2020, including Pinocchio over the Christmas period, and are working on a new schedule for 2021 which we hope will include some of the planned Festival 2020 shows in addition to South Pacific and The Unfriend.
All ticket holders will be contacted by our Box Office with the option of exchanges, credits, refunds or donations, taking the productions in date order, starting with The Life of Galileo and The Real Thing. Anyone with tickets to South Pacific and The Unfriend will be given the opportunity to exchange their existing tickets (at the same price) for the new schedule when finalised before we release tickets for priority and general sale. You can imagine how busy our Box Office will be at this time – they are a small team, all working from home – so please be patient and wait to hear from us, rather than contacting us yourself; we will be in touch as soon as we possibly can.
