Holstebro Festuge 2020: Generationer - Transformationer ***UDSAT til 2021***

PRESS RELEASE

The 11^th Holstebro Festuge (Holstebro Festive Week, Denmark), “Generations – Transformations”, 6^th – 14^th June 2020, is postponed one year due to the coronavirus situation

It is with great regret that the organisations behind Holstebro Festuge 2020, “Generations – Transformations”, 6^th – 14^th June 2020, have decided to postpone this huge - and already advanced - event. The decision was taken on the base of the authorities' current recommendations and first announcements of a ‘slow’ reopening of Denmark. The Festive Week should have taken place in the whole Holstebro Municipality soon. Now it has been postponed one year, to 5^th – 13^th June 2021.

Many inhabitants, associations, and more, actively contribute to creating Holstebro Festuge (Festive Week). We hope everyone involved will understand that it is the only sensible and right thing to do and that they will be with us again next year. It is precisely during this time that it would be important for citizens to experience and create together. But the decision has been made to give Holstebro inhabitants a good Festive Week without worrying about the danger of infection. Although we do not know yet the official guidelines for early June, we expect them to be in line with the government's instructions and people’s wishes.

Holstebro Mayor H.C Østerby has said in connection with the Festive Week postponement: "Odin Teatret has decided, after careful consideration, that Holstebro Festuge, which should have been held in June this year, is postponed to next year and is expected to happen in dates 5^th – 13^th June 2021.                 

Holstebro Municipality agrees with Odin Teatret that the Festive Week should be postponed.                

I would like to express my personal and the City Council's recognition that Odin Teatret shows timely care and great responsibility in this very difficult situation.                

It would be difficult for us to receive artists and guests coming from many countries in the near future, while many countries have closed their borders and artistic activities that gather a lot of people cannot happen. We could pass on the infection to our guests - and they could infect us. This is a risk we should not and cannot take.                

I hope that by moving the Festive Week to next year we can help keep the coronavirus pandemic in check, but also that we can look forward to another Holstebro Festive Week with unique artistic experiences and cultural activities that involve many citizens in interaction with international artists." 

The organisations behind Holstebro Festuge agree to realise the Festive Week next year, and we also hope that everyone involved, having recovered a little from the news, will get ready to engage again. For many, the cancellation means that there is a great deal of work to do now to put the already launched activities on hold for next year. Something can be postponed, and something needs to be reinvented completely. This applies to both the locals involved and the international guests, who are always part of the cityscape during the Festive Week. 

Per Kap Bech Jensen of Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium - Odin Teatret is of course disappointed about the postponement, but at the same time knows it is the only correct and responsible thing to do in this situation. He says: “We are in the process of making sure that all the invited artists are ready for next year. The work that had already started with, for example, the rehearsals for the great opening performance, has been put on hold and we must now ensure that it can be resumed next year. Of course, it has not been an easy decision, and it has been important that it was a joint decision made by the Festive Week Committee about the postponement."  

Holstebro Festuge is a living example of what a city and a municipality can create together. Everyone, from the city's cultural institutions to associations, local artists and a large number of active citizens, are behind the big event. This has been the case since Holstebro Festuge came into being in 1989, at the initiative of Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium - Odin Teatret, which, on the occasion of its 25^th anniversary, invited the city's cultural institutions to collaborate for a joint cultural event. Holstebro Festuge takes place approximately every three years, each time with a new theme. “Generations – Transformations” should have been Festive Week number 11. And so it will be – only a year later than planned.  

With best regards,

Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium – Odin Teatret, Holstebro Kommune and the Festive Week Commitee consisting of Anders Gaardboe Jensen – Holstebro Art Museum, Flemming Vistisen – Operaen i Midten, Helle Sigh – Nr. Vosborg, Ingeborg Svennevig – Cultural and Historical Museums, Jens Dammeyer Sørensen – Holstebro Music School, Kent Mortensen – Ballet School, Søren Taaning – Dansk Talent Academy together with Holstebro Municipality representatives and Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium  - Odin Teatret