GOLD CANYON, AZ — The 2021 Arizona Renaissance Festival has been canceled due to the rising cases of COVID-19 in the state, organizers said Wednesday in a Facebook post.
"With COVID-19 cases surging throughout the state, the Arizona Renaissance Festival has cancelled its announced ticket Pre-Sale and will not be opening this season," a statement said. "We are saddened this decision may result in further hardship for our valued renaissance community of artists and disappoint our patrons."
Earlier in the week, the festival announced its intent to open for the season in February with COVID-19 safety protocols in place.
"Many encourage us to be open, our festival community truly wants to get back to work. We earned governmental approval to open with an extensive COVID-19 safety operating plan," the festival said. "However, negative Covid conditions that have dramatically increased over recent days, the worst since the beginnings of the pandemic, and are forecast to worsen over the next weeks."
"Festival artist, vendor, and audience support to open at full scale is now more limited in comparison to the support necessary to be successful," the statement read.
It is the latest in a number of events that have either been canceled, postponed, or had to change their plans because of the pandemic.
Last week, it was announced that the Guaranteed Rate Bowl in December in downtown Phoenix and the Fiesta Bowl at State Farm Stadium in January would go on without fans in the stands, aside from some of the player's families.
Prior to that, the Arizona Cardinals decided not to allow fans at their game against the Rams. Before that, holiday light parades in Phoenix and Tempe were canceled, as well as the Ironman race.
