The board of the Cork International Choral Festival has announced that this year’s festival will be cancelled due to the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 virus.

The festival, which was set to take place from 29 April to 3 May, would have featured over five thousand participating choir members, eight hundred of whom were travelling from abroad. The choristers were travelling from Canada, Czech Republic, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Sweden and USA.

The festival is now in its 66th year. The board’s statement said it was ‘particularly aware of the major effect this cancellation will have on the cultural, economic and social life of the city’ and acknowledged the work by its administrative and voluntary teams and the organisations that have financially supported the event.

For more, visit www.corkchoral.ie. For updates on other festivals and events see here.