Lancashire Encounter Festival in Preston delayed for a year

The illumaphonium was one of the most popular parts of the Encounter Pic: Paul Melling

A major arts festival for the city has been put back to 2021.

Lancashire Encounter festival takes place every other year throughout Preston city centre.

Preston City Council say they have decided, due to the coronavirus pandemic, to put the biennial festival back to 2021.

Leader of the city council, councillor Matthew Brown, said: “This has been a difficult decision to make, but in many ways it has been taken out of our hands by the ongoing uncertainty that we face as a city, a region and as a country.

“It is not possible to plan for the delivery of an event on the scale of Lancashire Encounter with such uncertainty surrounding mass gatherings in the coming months as the safety of the public is our main concern.

“However, I’m confident in the teams and community groups and organisations across Lancashire that the festival in 2021 will be amazing and something we can all look forward to.”

The Encounter festival was due to take place between 18 – 20 September but has now been moved to 17 – 19 September 2021.

The city council says a ‘large amount of outreach work’ is needed to get performances ready for the festival and this has not been possible due to the restrictions of movement and gatherings.