It is with great sadness, that we feel compelled to cancel Retro Rendezvous 2020 due to the risks presented by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

We have given this a great deal of detailed consideration. Knowing, as we do, that running the event would give a significant psychological lift for our community, our many visitors and a much-needed boost for our local tourism and hospitality sectors, we have not taken this decision lightly.

We are bitterly disappointed to have to make this decision, particularly as, following the success of 2019, which was a real breakthrough year for the event, planned visitor numbers had increased significantly again for 2020. Bookings for the cycling event have been taken from across Europe and the USA.

Regardless, we felt that we had to put the health, safety and security of our visitors and communities first and place the long-term security of the event ahead of short-term gains. This decision protects the future of the event and ensures that it continues to be held in high regard by the local community, visitors and key statutory organisations.

We are committed to delivering the event to a high standard in the long term and with this in mind, we are considering a date change for 2021, we need to consult a range of stakeholders on this and will announce a decision as soon as possible. We have outlined the basis of our decision-making process below.

Your Booking
If you have booked a stall with us, the default position is that you will automatically be transferred to the 2021 event at 2020 prices. If you can stay with us over the winter, that would be fantastic and will help significantly in having funds together to build the 2021 event. However, if you need to cancel, we will refund.

We would like to thank you for your ongoing support and patience as we have worked through this and look forward to seeing you many times again, in a happier and safer world.

The Retro Rendezvous Team, July 27^th 2020

Basis of Consideration

• Safety. At the basis of every possible approach, we considered the degree to which we could protect the safety of the local community and visitors alike. Regardless of the restrictions considered, we could not see a way forward with any reliable degree of control. Currently, public health officials are fighting to contain C-19 outbreaks in West Lancashire and Carlisle / Eden, the risk therefore, must be considered as elevated here. The key repeated question was ‘how would be feel if an outbreak occurred here or elsewhere, as a result of the event going ahead?’
• Quality. Could we offer an event which was qualitatively similar, to people’s usual experience of the weekend? The answer, consistently, was a resounding ‘no’. Further, many of the more popular elements, gain their energy and joy from large numbers of people congregating tightly together. We would be unable to deliver a recognisable Retro Rendezvous
• Financial. Cancelling the event for 2020, creates a significant financial burden, building two years of fixed costs for one year of revenue. This presents a genuine challenge, however, as a mature event this is survivable. If we were to go ahead and then later forced to cancel at short notice, having committed to full event costs, the impact could be catastrophic. This situation is amplified by the need for significant numbers of additional staff to ensure COVID security. Event insurance covering C-19 cancellation is not available.
• Risk and uncertainty. The legislation around C-19 restrictions has been created, by necessity, very quickly, missing out many of the normal stages of review and consultation. As a result, much of it lacks clarity at a detail level and all of it lacks the precedent of case law. As such, we have had to take a precautionary approach. In effect, the more that we know, the more questions arise. For example, we are not entirely clear if we could legally run an event of this scale. We do know however, that in the event of a local outbreak, we would be expected to cancel, without notice – this has been reinforced by the unexpected restrictions placed on Spanish travel this weekend.