A beloved fixture of our summer calendar for 33 years, Cambridge Shakespeare Festival is the latest arts event to become a casualty of the Covid-19 crisis. Having been forced to cancel all of its 2020 performances, the festival finds itself in dire straits financially, and has asked the public to consider making a donation to help secure its future.
Cambridge Shakespeare Festival has been a beloved fixture of our summer calendar for 33 years
The festival’s Artistic Director, Dr David Crilly, has personally underwritten the festival throughout its existence but explains; “Our income stream ended at the close of the festival in August 2019. We won’t receive anything from ticket sales until June 2021, which means we must try to survive for 22 months without any income. Like any other going concern we still have bills to pay for offices, warehouse storage, vehicles, insurance, costume storage, repair and maintenance.” David added that in addition to things ‘ticking over’ there are the start-up costs associated with each year’s festival. In total, the costs of putting on the festival are well in excess of £200,000, and much of that is recouped in ticket sales. But there are significant bills to pay in order to get the festival up and running in the first place, well before tickets go on sale.
In order to ensure the survival of the festival, the organisers have established a crowdfunding appeal, which went live on 21 June (appropriately, midsummer night). Anyone wishing to invest in the future of the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival can do so via the festival website cambridgeshakespeare.com, or through crowdfunder.co.uk
