Gloucester City Council is reviewing its festival and events programme including considering socially distanced events or online alternatives to ensure that the city’s vibrant cultural life continues.  

The city council and its partners are closely monitoring the ongoing Covid 19 pandemic and are looking at how Gloucester can continue to provide a cultural programme for 2021.  

Work is also taking place behind the scenes to ensure that cultural events and festivals can continue in the city when it is feasible to do so.

Last year’s Bright Nights festival in December and Of Earth and Sky by Luke Jerram in the autumn, demonstrated how cultural events can still be held in a safe and socially distanced manner. 

Both events took place outdoors, laying down a template for how art, music and performance can be experienced by the community safely.

In addition, the city’s History Festival went ahead with a varied programme of talks and events online.

The museum’s latest exhibition, Life in Lockdown can also be accessed online along with a series of 40 talks about the museum’s artefacts now available on YouTube.

I am a member of the working group that looks at cultural matters in Gloucester during the pandemic, and we have been working hard to get events happening again.

Last month I also asked a written question of the cabinet member about plans for the future as Covid hopefully abates.