LIFT Announces Cancellation Of 2020 Festival

Today LIFT Festival has announced the cancellation of the 2020 Festival due to take place from 2 June - 11 July 2020. Following Government advice on Monday 16 March and to protect the safety of audiences, artists and workforce, LIFT cannot proceed with the festival at this time, and will instead return with an edition in 2021. More details to follow.

LIFT, London's leading biennial festival of international theatre, has been running for over three decades, connecting London audiences with some of the most exciting artists, thought-provoking ideas and cultural experiences in spaces right across the capital. The festival was due to return this summer with the inaugural programme from new leadership team, Artistic Director / CEO Kris Nelson and Executive Director Stella Kanu.

Artistic Director / CEO Kris Nelson and Executive Director Stella Kanu said:

"We are incredibly sad to announce that we will not be proceeding with this year's festival. The health, safety and wellbeing of our audiences, artists and team is our upmost priority, and having listened to advice from the Government, and consulted at length with festival artists and LIFT's trustees, partners and colleagues, it is clear that there is no choice but to postpone.

We wish to thank every member of our team, and our co-producers and co-presenters, collaborators, and creatives for the enormous amount of time, and work they have invested in this year's festival, and our audiences for their support to date. LIFT is a festival that stands for inclusion and for community and in these uncertain times, we will do all we can to support the artistic sector in the UK, as well as International Artists all over the world.

If you have bought a ticket for a cancelled festival event, we would like to assure you that you are entitled to a credit note, exchange or refund. However, we would ask those who have purchased tickets to kindly consider donating the cost of your tickets to the festival if you have the capacity to do so. Please bear with us during this unprecedented and difficult time - we will contact you as soon as we can and keep our audiences as up to date as possible via the Festival website, social media and email. We are grateful for your support, your understanding and for wanting to be a part of LIFT.

We look forward to returning in 2021 to bring you a festival of extraordinary and ground-breaking experiences when, we hope, these challenging times are far behind us."