It has been a crazy spring, and even though some things are returning back to normal, traveling between countries is not one of them. It has not been easy to try to figure out the best way to make an international art festival, when we do not know if anybody will be able to come here. Extremely expensive flight ticket prices, weeks of quarantine and closed borders are big issues now and probably in September too.
So, with heavy hearts we announce that this years Lahti Fringe Festival will not be an international art festival. We cannot expect artists to come here to spend two weeks in quarantine and perform to half-empty halls because of safety regulations. There just is no point in that.
Still, we are not giving up, instead we will return to our roots and focus on Finnish performances and make a smaller scale festival with local artists. The safety of people will be taken into consideration in every aspect of our event and we will follow all regulations and guidelines of authorities. We will inform later how these regulations will affect our event.
– Lahti Fringe Festival Team
Photo of Lahti by Antti Mäkijärvi.