It is with great sadness that we write to announce our decision to cancel this edition of KIKK festival 2020. We really wanted to believe in it, we worked like crazy until the last minute to try to deliver a festival with all the security measures in mind. But with the new government measures that have just been announced, we see ourselves in the definitive impossibility of organising the festival as we had planned.
In recent weeks, many areas in Europe have gone into a red zone. We have had to deal with many cancellations. For our speakers, professionals and artists, coming to Belgium meant being stuck at home in quarantine on their return. Despite this complicated situation, we did not give up and we found solutions to maintain the festival with an adapted programme. But today, some areas, such as Ireland or Wales are going back to lockdown. With less than two weeks to go before the event, a large part of our programme would have to be replaced or cancelled again.
The number of attendees planned for the conferences was based on the exceptions granted to the cultural venues in which they were to take place. However, with the new restriction of 200 people just issued by the government, we already had too many participants with a ticket for the conferences and we do not know what measures are likely to come into force in 15 days' time...
In addition to the problem of venue capacity, there are the restaurants, bars and hotels in Namur which are closing and the complexity of organising a safe catering for the festival teams and speakers, volunteers who cancel their participation, as well as the first sick people in the team and a number suspected cases which is increasing day by day.
We thought about plans A, B, C (and even Z) for the festival, but the context has changed a lot. Even last week, maintaining the festival seemed to us to be a committed act.
Today, at a time when new health restrictions are expected and everyone has to make an effort to limit their movements and contacts, the organisation of a festival as we would have liked is no longer possible.
We were committed to supporting artists, the sector of creative industries, the event industry, the catering and cultural sector, that is why we decided to resist, to create this moment of sharing, exchange, happiness and human warmth. It is also the reason why, from the very beginning, we rejected the idea of organising an online event.
Unfortunately, we had to accept the reality of the situation and make a decision contrary to everything we believe in. But which is the most reasonable one today.
It's not the end, it's just the beginning! KIKK festival will come back bigger and stronger. With more bridges, connections and commitments.
See you already on the 5th of November, at the opening of the Pop-up exhibition in Le Pavillon, the new permanent location of KIKK. Come and discover the exhibition Humans / Machines until the 31st of January 2021.
Thank you for everything!
The KIKK team