Wednesday, March 25, 2020

‘Romanza Festivale 2020’ cancelled


The following information comes from St. Augustine, Florida:

Due to the COVID-19 emergency the 2020 St. Augustine’s Romanza Festivale of Music & The Arts is cancelled.  The Festivale has been scheduled 17 days from May 1 to May 17, 2020 with daily events all around St. Augustine, including 80+ concerts, shows, exhibits, and more.

Romanza regrets disappointing our many friends, fans and neighbors who delight in this annual showcase of St. Augustine’s abundant and diverse cultural scene.  Most Festivale Partner organizations have notified us that they as well are forced to cancel their own productions within the Festivale.  Not only are the crowd restrictions prohibitive, but several key performers may not be able to even get here from places like Australia, the UK, California, etc...

This complex festival, with so many Partners and productions, is difficult to schedule in the first place, so we do not expect to reschedule it in 2020.  Romanza believes in supporting the arts and our local artists. Romanza Festivale has been able to operate at a level of increasing support to our community artists and musicians through paid performances, stipends, sponsorships, Awards, scholarships, and significant promotion.

Now
Romanza has suffered a severe financial blow with the late cancellation of the Celtic Festival by our City.  Francis Field was completely set up by the time we were given the order to cancel. Romanza incurred huge expenses for rented equipment already delivered, contracted personnel already on duty, and supplies already purchased, etc.  Funds from Romanza’s savings account that were supposed to fund Festivale are suddenly not available.

Romanza Festivale and the Celtic Festival, as well as the St. Patrick Parade are produced by Romanza-St. Augustine, Inc. a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.


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