It is with regret that the committee of The Highcliffe Food and Arts Festival CIC have once again had to make the difficult decision to cancel the 2021 Event.

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The volunteer directors of Highcliffe Food and Arts Festival regretfully announce that the festival will not go ahead this year. After consultation with the festival committee members, the Highcliffe and Walkford Parish Council and other organisations, we have come to the conclusion that with the ongoing problems emanating from the evolving COVID crisis and possibility of more lockdowns later in 2021, the risk is too great for us to continue our arrangements for a festival this year.

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With undoubtedly both additional safeguards required and extra precautions requested under both local council and government guidelines, the additional costs involved would be too great to make the event financially viable. Having lost a considerable amount of money last year following cancellation of the 2020 festival, we feel as a committee that it would be irresponsible to risk losing even more money. We are also very much aware that many local companies, that support us financially, are themselves struggling under hardships the various lockdowns have imposed and would not be in a position to provide the sponsorship that we are so dependent on.

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We understand it will be a great disappointment to many people as once again we are forced to cancel. We also understand the impact that the cancellation will have on traders, organisations and individuals that attend the show and we very much hope they will be supporting us next year. The health of trade stand holders, sponsors, participants, volunteers and visiting public are our top priority and hopefully with the rollout of vaccines currently moving forward at a rapid pace, we might soon reach a more normal situation.

We would like to thank everyone associated with the event for their continued support, and we look forward to a fantastic show in 2022 to compensate for yet another disappointment.