George Town Festival cancelled due to Covid-19

CORONAVIRUS | The annual George Town Festival may be cancelled due to the Covid-19 outbreak which has been classified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a pandemic.

The festival, to celebrate the inscription of George Town as a Unesco World Heritage site in 2010, is an annual cultural event held for 16 days, which previously attracted about 250,000 visitors.

This year, the event was planned from July 13 to 38.

Yeoh Soon Hin, who is the exco for Tourism, Arts, Culture and Heritage, said the state has made this "difficult but necessary decision" to cancel the George Town Heritage Celebrations 2020 and George Town Festival 2020.

"We believe that prevention is the best solution, social distancing is critical to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Both festivals involve thousands of local and international artists, crew members, contractors, and project teams.

"These events also gather thousands of families and individuals who come to enjoy the richness and beauty of George Town's arts, culture and heritage.

"However, it would indeed be most difficult to trace the travel history of all participants and celebration-goers, and their close proximity to one another would increase the risk of the virus' spread. Therefore, we have to cancel these events to ensure the wellbeing and safety of everyone," he added.

Yeoh said George Town World Heritage Incorporated and TLM Event Sdn Bhd (which has been selected as the contractor to conduct George Town Festival 2021) will approach all relevant stakeholders (including project partners, project teams, vendors, local communities, as well as international and local performing groups, and more) to renegotiate the collaboration terms with them.

He added, by default, all planned programmes for George Town Heritage Celebrations and George Town Festival will be carried forward to the year 2021.

"We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused and seek the understanding of everyone on this difficult decision.

"The health and wellbeing of our people is our top priority and we will do our best to mitigate the negative impacts from this decision," Yeoh said.

He was responding to artist Aida Redza, who said in her Instagram post that many like her would suffer due to the pandemic spread.

Aida said projects which are the main income for artists, if postponed, is still acceptable.

However, if the projects are cancelled, it is a loss of income for the artists who have planned their events for months, she lamented.

"How do we survive? Good question," Aida said.

She was responding to a message from a South Korean artist, who said they can no longer collaborate with her on a project discussed this year.

The artist said the South Korean government had advised them to suspend all international exchange in order to prevent the risk of the virus outbreak.

Aida was supposed to direct a performance with Korean dancers to be staged in Ansan city in April and George Town Festival in July.

Yesterday, Malaysia recorded 20 new Covid-19 cases, including one in Penang, bringing the total number of cases to 149. 

The Health Ministry has urged all mass gatherings to be postponed to avoid further spread of Covid-19.

Those who have respiratory problems are advised not to attend such events, including religious activities.

Such individuals are told to practise "social distancing" of at least one metre from others.

They are also advised not to travel abroad to countries where there is a virus outbreak and refrain from visiting other cities during the school holidays which starts next week. - Mkini