Durham BRASS festival cancelled

Durham BRASS was due to take place across County Durham this summer, with ten days of live gigs, open air concerts, street parties and school performances set to entertain people of all ages between 10 and 19 July.

We have been closely following Government guidelines in response to the pandemic and are regularly reviewing our 2020 festival and events programme as the situation evolves.

Following guidance

This week, we made the regrettable but necessary decision to cancel BRASS. The decision follows the cancellation of a number of our other events, including Bishop Auckland Food Festival, Durham Adventure Festival and Seaham Food Festival.

Last year, more than 40,000 people experienced Durham BRASS, boosting the county's economy by hundreds of thousands of pounds and introducing new audiences to 21^st century brass music from around the world.

Uplifting music

Cllr Joy Allen, our Cabinet member for transformation, culture and tourism, said: "BRASS has been delighting audiences of all ages for more than a decade and has helped put County Durham on the cultural map, so we are sorry it can not go ahead this year.

"It is vital we follow the Government's social distancing guidelines and our main priority is the health of our communities, visitors, musicians, partners, sponsors, festival staff, and volunteers.

"BRASS is all about bringing people together, both in terms of our international line up of musicians and our wonderful Big Brass Bash parties. Sadly, this is just not possible this year. However, we know how uplifting music can be, especially during difficult times like these, and we will continue to spread the joy of BRASS through our social media channels until we can all get together again."