It seems like forever since we made the call back in March to postpone Vantastival 2020, just two days before the whole country went into lockdown. At the time, like everyone, we were hopeful that Covid 19 would pass and we would be able to bring everyone together for a delayed festival in mid-September. Alas it wasn’t to be! At this moment in time no one really knows which way the pandemic is going to go over the next few months or years. We have no signpost for the future of mass gatherings. Many are hopeful that we’ll all be able to meet in celebration once more next summer, while some of us are more cautious in our outlook. At Vantastival HQ we continue to watch the development of the virus and its effects. While we like to be optimistic, we don’t wish to sell tickets for a 2021 event with no guarantee that it will be possible. As a family, we have had time to reflect on the business that we spent 11 years building and passionately working on together. What a ride! We have made such amazing friends over the past decade through Vantastival and are so eternally grateful to all of you for the support you have shown us in this most difficult of years.

So, onwards and upwards from 2020! We are keeping busy and using this time to work on other projects and ideas that have been brewing for quite a while but never had the opportunity to be developed. We hope to be able to reveal some of these to you in due course. We don’t know if we’ll see you all in a field in 2021, but whether it’s next year or the year after, at some point the craic will be back!

Until then take care, stay safe and thank you for your continued support xxx

Deadline for refund claims is Sunday 19th July

Just a reminder to all ticket-buyers for this year’s festival that the deadline for claiming a refund is midnight on Sunday 19th July. All ticket-buyers have been emailed through Eventbrite, with reminder emails also sent to those who had not yet submitted the claim form. If you bought tickets and for any reason did not receive the emails, please contact us asap at info@vantastival.com.

Please be aware that tickets cannot be held for 2021. Tickets left unclaimed after 19th July 2020 will be considered donated to the festival. Thank you to everyone who has donated to date!

With a very heavy heart we have accepted that it is not feasible for this year’s Vantastival to go ahead in September. While the lockdown restrictions have been lifting and the Government Roadmap accelerated, there is still no concrete information surrounding the holding of mass gatherings in the autumn. Following consultation with the Gardaí in Drogheda and the relevant government departments, unfortunately at this point we feel the only responsible course of action is to cancel. We know that everyone was very hopeful that Vantastival could be the end-of-lock-down party to beat all, but we have to be realistic and take into consideration the health and safety of our patrons and their families, as well as the local community.

An event like Vantastival involves a huge amount of advance planning and logistics. Each day and week the Covid 19 goalposts are moving and while currently the overall outlook looks positive for September, the absence of guidelines or certainty on numbers makes it impossible for us to plan. We also feel strongly that even if the event were permitted to go ahead, the intimate and friendly nature of Vantastival would suffer greatly with strict social distancing requirements, and we do not want to put on an event lacking in the atmosphere so loved by our patrons.

We are so very appreciative of your support and we hope to return in 2021 with the party we’ve all been craving. All ticket-holders will be contacted by email and offered a full refund. We want to take a moment at this point to say THANK YOU. We couldn’t do what we do without you. Right now our small business, among so many others in our industry, is feeling the effects of this shutdown. We need your support more than ever, so please continue to follow us on social media, stay up to date with all things Vantastival, and keep listening to great Irish music!

Covid 19 Festival Update, June 2020

It has been a strange and worrying few months and it’s great to see some of the Covid19 lockdown restrictions being lifted. Everyone is eager to get out and start doing all the things we love to do over the summer. On 1st May the Government published a 5 step roadmap for the reopening of society, which shut down any hope of large gatherings before 10th August. The majority of summer festivals had already been cancelled prior to this. The Roadmap has now been accelerated due to the success of the lockdown restrictions in controlling spread of the virus, and many people are seeing this as a green light for Vantastival and other events. Unfortunately however, we are far from having the all clear for a September event just yet. There are still no guidelines around the numbers that will be permitted to gather once the final phase of the Roadmap is reached, nor do we know any details about the social distancing requirements for outdoor gatherings. For an event as intimate as Vantastival, and particularly one which has such a large number of children on site, such requirements may not be viable and we need to be realistic about this.

At Vantastival HQ we are working away on production for Vantastival 2020, but in the knowledge that there is a strong possibility that we will have to cancel this year’s event. We are in consultation with various authorities and event industry groups, and hope to have a more definite plan by the end of June. We would ask people to be patient and refrain from purchasing tickets for another few weeks. In the event of cancellation, all ticket buyers will be offered a full refund.

Stay safe everyone, we will be back with more information as soon as possible x