We Love Hythe Life Food Fest Postponed until 2021
So, we have all found ourselves in the midst of probably the most surreal time that we will collectively ever have to live through. Fingers crossed that we are coming through the other side and tentatively dipping our toes back into the realms of normality. Before we know it we’ll all be so excited at the prospect of no more social distancing that we’ll be running up and ‘bear-hugging’ everyone we see, and yes, even the veritable stranger. Lucky them!
Whilst we know that social distancing is now easing and that it eventually will, like all turmoils do, come to an end, we have to be super sensible with any decisions we make that will affect the public by way of any large gatherings.
We are sure that you are all aware, it’s fast coming up to the time of year that the whole town has marked on their calendars, the We Love Hythe Life Food Festival. The festival has become a ‘must go to’ event – growing each year and by far the largest social event of its kind in Hythe. We are so proud of how it helps pull the town together and serves as an annual meeting point for so many friends and families. It is also starting to bring in festival-goers from across the South East. Putting Hythe firmly on the Bank Holiday must visit map. It’s fair to say that it has firmly won a place in the heart of the towns identity and has provided so many happy and sun-kissed memories.
It’s for all those reasons that we have held off, and held off making any concrete decisions about the festival. We care for Hythe and it’s wonderful people too much. We were hoping and praying that everything would be pointing to an August without any fear or constraints. Well, it seems that that hope may have been a little in vain. Yes, the shops have opened and we will all happily return and support local business but these businesses have a lot more control over numbers than we do as festival organisers. We simply have no idea with what the situation will be by the time we reach the August Bank Holiday weekend.
So this year, and with a heavy heart, we have taken the difficult decision to cancel the festival and return in complete safety for 2021. Because we actually don’t have a crystal ball (despite the fact that we planned every festival so far to be blessed with outrageously amazing weather) – we had to make a call. As it stands, at the time of writing this article, we are not permitted to meet groups of more than six people from different households outside –. let alone actively encourage thousands of people to one location, where social distancing would be questionable at best. Add into the mix, amazing food, cool music, summertime drinking, all topped off with stunning weather and you can probably understand our concerns.
There is a tremendous amount of work that goes on behind the scenes. Much of it depends on certainty, of which we are short supply of at the moment. We could not leave this decision any later, as we simply don’t have the time left to plan for the festival with the care and attention it deserves. We hope that you all understand that we have done this with only the best interests of everyone in involved; including our wonderful town, visitors from far and wide, our volunteers and the hundreds of chefs and musicians that make this event the best festival in the area. Even though this was the most sensible decision to take and whilst we are massively disappointed, we know we’ll be back with a great big, almighty, whollaping, bang next summer.
So…until next year…stay safe and we’ll see you in 2021.
