Vault Festival 2022: London fringe festival in Waterloo cancelled due to Omicron surge

A major arts festival in Waterloo has been cancelled due to uncertainty around the Omicron Covid-19 variant.

The Vault Festival, which showcases stand-up, theatre and cabaret was supposed to take place from January 25 to March 20, in venues across Waterloo.

The festival was due to celebrate its 10th anniversary year, but on Tuesday organisers made the “gut wrenching” decision to cancel this year’s event.

The popular fringe festival was to feature hundreds of shows by independent artists from across the UK, including comedians Rosie Jones and Ivo Graham.

The organisers, Vault Creative Arts, said: “Since the emergence of the Omicron variant, we’ve explored numerous options to still be able to deliver our 10th anniversary festival safely and successfully, all of which were found to put our staff and artists at risk of being subjected to months of stress, uncertainty, and insurmountable financial vulnerability.

“We have to make brave and proactive decisions to prioritise and protect the mental health, wellbeing, and safety of our staff, artists, and audiences.

“We work with a lot of vulnerable people, for whom participating in the festival is no longer viable in light of the ongoing developments.”

The festival was also cut short in 2020 due to the first national lockdown and the 2021 festival had been postponed to this month.

Director and co-founder Andy George said the cancellation will directly affect more than 2,500 creative industry staff and artists.

The 2022 programme included 600 shows created by around 2,400 artists and workers, as well as around 120 freelancers to help deliver the spectacle.

He added that the cancellation will cost the organisation around £1,656,000 of its annual revenue, with a combined loss of around £3.4 million for the postponement of the two festivals.

The organisation had already paid out around £100,000 in costs for the 2022 event, most of which went to creative freelancers.

Those with tickets are being refunded, while the organisers now say they are working to “minimise the financial impact” on artists and staff.

The capital’s arts industry has been hit badly due to the Omicron wave, in which several major productions were forced to cancel performances in the run up to Christmas, due to positive cases.

West End productions including Hamilton, Wicked, Cinderella and Cabaret were cancelled, while various Nutcracker performances at the Royal Albert Hall, Sadlers Wells and the Royal Opera House were called off due to isolating cast and staff members.

Last month, chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a £30 million recovery fund to support the theatre industry, along with one-off grants of up to £6,000 per premises for businesses in the leisure and hospitality sectors.

However, mayor of London Sadiq Khan said this support package will “barely touch the sides”.

“The chancellor has said nothing on support for freelancers and gig economy workers, or of the targeted reintroduction of the furlough scheme to protect those workers who will see their incomes plummet.

“Ministers must act now to ensure that more jobs are not permanently lost.”