ADF Update

Australian Dance Festival 2020 Cancelled

Regretfully, the organisers of the annual Australian Dance Festival have decided to cancel this year’s event due to COVID-19 restrictions and health and safety concerns for its participants. Now in its 12th year, the 2020 Australian Dance Festival was due to take place in Sydney over September 25-27.

The organisers today issued a statement:

Three weeks ago, it looked like the COVID-19 cases in Australia were trickling away and we were 100% certain that the ADF would go ahead. We had the go ahead from the venues and had just started to confirm our instructors and workshop timetable.

With the surge of cases in Victoria, and clusters in NSW we have made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 Australian Dance Festival. We understand that most states in Australia are restricting their borders, and some are enforcing a 14 day quarantine for interstate travel. Additionally, the NSW government has limited gatherings to a maximum of 300 people (rather than as many people the venue can accommodate with the 4 sqm rule). We are uncertain as to whether this restriction will be lifted by the time the ADF rolls around. As such, we simply cannot ask families to run the risk of attending the ADF in September.

We had hoped for the very best and wanted so badly for the ADF to go ahead, for the sake of all the dancers who have missed out on so much already in 2020. It has been extremely difficult to give up on this hope.

Throughout this week, we have been informing our instructors, sponsors and supporters know of our decision, and the support and love we have received has been overwhelming. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank the universe for blessing us with so many amazing people in our dance industry.

They will be offering refunds for Accommodation and Tickets already purchased.

We ask for your understanding and patience as we have been taking bookings since October 2019, and we will have quite a lot to get through. We aim to process all refunds by the 15th August.

If you were a part of a Group Booking, we will be refunding the money to the schools next week and you should be hearing from them. Please allow for at least a week until you ask the schools for your refund as they may not have received the money from us yet.

We appreciate your understanding and look forward to seeing you at the 2021 Australian Dance Festival! Be sure to be following us on Instagram and Facebook for the latest updates for 2021!

In light if this news the Artistic Director of Australian Dance Festival, Marko Panzic, said “In these difficult times stay positive, we are the joy that keeps spirits lifted in the world. A community can make a difference. A world without art is a world we cannot survive in. Cherish and support. Let’s look out for each other.”