Luton St Patrick's Festival 2020, the festival that never was!

Luton St Patrick’s Festival 2020 was planned to run from 14 to 17 March. But with the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic hitting the UK hard in the week leading up to the main events, the Festival Committee had to make the unprecedented decision to cancel the Festival.

What we accomplished:

Pre-festival fringe events that did go ahead

Life of St Patrick school assembly at Foxdell Infant School

St Patrick’s family craft workshop at The Mall

St Patrick’s Party at Community Choices
Day Centre.

Cancelled Festival plans were

Luton Library Theatre was due to host two showings of the Irish comedy-drama, An Ordinary Man, produced by The Beezneez Theatre Company, Co Leitrim. 

Sean O’Riada Irish sung Mass at Our Lady Help of Christians Catholic Church.

Parade, with a showcase of the biggest and most colourful parade yet with 500 participants featuring an Irish wolfhound, a digger, a tractor, a Vintage Car Club and Irish characters together with GAA teams, Irish dancing schools and County Associations. 

Irish market and family area with stalls and workshop areas including children’s face painting, photobooth, LIF tea and cake stall, LIF merchandise stall, LIF art group stall, St Vincent’s GAA penalty shootout game, Finbarr Conway Academy of Dance workshop tent and Leitrim Association Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire stall.

Market Hill stage, featuring award-winning country singer John McNicholl and Ireland’s “Female Vocalist of the Year 2019” Olivia Douglas. 

The Mall Stage, showcasing local Irish dancing schools, school choirs and music acts.

Festival newcomer, the Hat Factory Stage featuring Celtic rock and Trad bands from Ireland and Luton.

Festivities were due to close with a St Patrick’s Day Celebration in the Celtic Club on St Patrick’s Day itself.

In the week leading up the Festival, the differing Irish and UK government approaches to Covid-19 pandemic restrictions left community opinion split. On the 9th March, it was announced that the Dublin and Cork St Patrick’s Day parades were cancelled as Ireland was preparing to move into lockdown. With the UK government having a different approach and UK public opinion remaining positive, the Festival Committee were optimistic that the Festival would still go ahead which was met with great support from the Luton Irish community. By the 12th of March the GAA advised all GAA teams around the world to suspend all training and matches and not engage with community gatherings. 

This along with Ireland restricting travel resulted in musical and dramatic performers due to fly over for our Festival pulling out, as well as local GAA teams withdrawing from the parade and volunteering roles. Combined with Ireland’s announcement of a lockdown, community opinion changed drastically but with the UK government not announcing any restrictions the Festival committee was left in a very difficult position. 

The Committee planned to meet on the morning of the 13th to make a final decision about the fate of the Festival based on the safety of festivalgoers.  On the morning of the 13th they woke to the news that London St Patrick’s Festival had been cancelled. In a very emotional Committee meeting that morning it was decided to cancel the Festival with the safety of our older members, volunteers and Festival guests being paramount. 

The cancellation announcement via social media reached more than 40,000 people. The cancellation had an enormous impact which was felt by the volunteers, staff and Festival partners, particularly with Luton Culture and the Celtic Club losing revenue. However, the groups that were impacted most are the entertainers including DJs, bands, musicians, school choirs and several Irish dancing schools both local and from Ireland. Due to the UK government not announcing restrictions and instructing events to cancel, the Festival cancellation was not covered by its insurance, resulting in a loss of £25,000. However, many of the bands and other acts responded with a generous spirit through waiving fees, and this along with public support through crowdfunding we were able to recoup more than £10,000 to help ensure the return of the Festival in 2021.

The show must go on!

Although the Festival was cancelled, and the UK government announced the ban of live music in pubs the St Patrick spirit was still strong in the heart of the community. Luton saw a very different but lively St Patrick’s weekend with much of the community celebrating at home with family and many bands and performers holding Facebook live events which we gladly supported and which have been viewed by thousands to date. 

The overwhelming community support we received through social media reactions, comments and messages proves how much the Festival is valued. We are indebted to the community for their show of appreciation and support. 

Here are just a few of the hundreds of supportive comments received on LIF Facebook.

“So sorry that this happened as we were looking forward to being part of the Festival … but people’s health must come first, and cancellation was the correct decision.” 

“Heartbroken for you as cannot begin to imagine the months of work that have gone into this brilliant festival, but you’ve done the right thing - looking forward to next year even more now.”

“So sad this has happened. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication for organising a fantastic festival. Look forward to 2021.”

“Thank you for everything you have worked so hard on and for putting your community first always. Next year will be a belter!” 

Discover more socail media responces in the Image Gallery.