It is with great regret that we have come to the decision to postpone the event as advertised due to concerns in relation to Covid-19. We do not want to expose patrons attending our events to the health risks. As promoters in music & arts and as citizens have been monitoring the impact of Covid-19 internationally and how it is affecting all facets of life, we feel our decision is well informed and responsible. We have been following media reports and events as they unfold and some of the most affected countries have already imposed tighter restrictions and have banned public gatherings. WHO has declared Covid-19 pandemic.as it meets the definition of a disease that has spread around the world to a significant degree.
Here in England Dr Michael Head, of the University of Southampton said Covid -19 pandemic may push government to ban public gatherings sooner rather than they planned. Scotland and Ireland have already banned public gatherings and closed schools. As such Covid-19 has been declared a national crisis and a COBRA meeting took place on 12/03/20 and informed that all with symptoms are advised to self isolate. Prime Minister, BJ described it as worst public crisis in a generation and the outbreak can no longer be contained and the focus now is to delay the spread or peak. The government is now considering banning public gatherings. NHS England have reported that the trajectory is on its rise to peak at 4-6 weeks’ time of which drastic and draconian measures have to be put in place. This peak time coincides with Y2K April events and the health risks will be very high.
From a business perspective and given the nature of the beast it is proving difficult to keep financial commitments in-situ and carrying a risk that the events might not happen. Most insurance companies now will not even consider public liability insurances for public events in this current climate.
We have a fair amount of patrons that come from Europe for our events, who are not clear about their travels and have concerns / fears of being quarantined in other country. Some have enquired about how Y2K will be managing health & safety for those attending and whether the events are actually going ahead etc. We have communicated with UKBA regarding guidance about SAMA artists who come on work visas and at present we have no assurances in their response.
We have communicated with all SAMA artists and agreed to trigger the postponement and or ‘force majeure’ contract clause and in the best interest of public health postpone the events to Friday, 03/07/2020, Saturday, 04/07/2020 & Sunday, 05/07/2020. Event set up remains the same apart from London venue changing to a better and newly renovated Oasis, 6-8 Thames Rd, Barking IG11 0HZ
We are pleased that all SAMA artists have agreed to perform on these new dates. We would like to give reassurance that all tickets purchased remain valid for all rescheduled events. We are still selling advance tickets and we will advise on refunds in due course in line with government legislation. This is a crisis situation, our hearts and thoughts are with all who have been affected by Covid-19. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our sponsor WorldRemit and all Y2K supporters who always invest a lot of their effort in supporting us by setting aside time as well committing financially in order to attend our events. We are really looking forward to hosting these banging artists on our yearly SAMA Festival UK and especially this event as it is our 20 years anniversary and we have lots of surprises in store
We are now in the process of managing sales, reorganising / rescheduling events, updating Y2K social handles. For now remember lets all ‘catch it kill it bin it’, keep washing hands, using sanitisers, self isolate as when required and follow NHS Coronavirus website for more updates on Covid-19.
