Culture
23 Dec 20

Northern Ireland’s Stendhal Festival will host two events to mark 10th anniversary

The lineups for each event - one in July, one in August - are yet to be announced.

Northern Ireland’s Stendhal Festival will officially celebrate its 10th anniversary next year with two separate events.

The 10th edition of the festival, which began in 2011, was slated to take place at Balefully Cottage Farm this year, but was cancelled on account of the coronavirus pandemic.

Organisers have now said that they are much more optimistic about events returning in 2021 after the commencement of the roll out of a mass vaccination programme.

The festival maintain that the programme can be used in conjunction with social distancing plans they have already devised to make sure that the events can take place this summer.

The first Stendhal event will take place on July 9 and 10 and the second will be on August 12, 13 and 14.

A mix of 1,500 general and family tickets are now available for the first Stendhal in July – which organisers hope they can upscale to 3,000 in the coming months – while the second event will only have 500 tickets on sale initially to accommodate those who moved their 2020 Stendhal Ticket to 2021.

“It’s been a really tough year,” Stendhal director Ross Park Hill said in a statement.

“We don’t have to tell anybody that because every one has been in somewhat of the same boat. That said, the entertainment and events industry have probably seen the biggest hits brought on by the pandemic, so we are quite simply delighted to have been able to navigate our way through 2020 and still be in a position to run events next year.”

“I’d like to take the opportunity to again publicly thank those patrons who rolled over their tickets from 2020 to 2021, they are a one of the main reasons we survived 2020 and are in a position to re-launch the festival in 2021," Hill added.

“In that vain I’d also like to thank all the organisations that have supported us through the pandemic including Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council, Help Musicians NI and The Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

“We are so excited by the prospect of welcoming people back to the farm and we can’t wait to be able to once again deliver all the music, arts and creativity that Stendhal is known for. We guarantee it will be worth the wait.”

Tickets for the events are available through this link.