2020 Women’s Climbing Festival Bishop Cancelled

March 12, 2020 Arianna Rodriguez

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UPDATE: 3/12/20

We’d like to respond to some feedback we’re receiving from some folks about the partial refund. In full transparency, we are a small grassroots organization and the massive losses we are sustaining from having to cancel the event due to reasons completely out of our control are close to being business ending. We do not have the festival insurance that covers our losses here.

In addition to providing partial refunds to folks, we are also offering partial payments to the presenters, athletes and instructors who were supposed to attend the festival and teach as they might have declined other work to come work for the festival – we are trying to do right to many folks.

However, we recognize that some folks feel very strongly about receiving a full refund and as such, if you are in need of a full refund, please email us at info@flashfoxy.com. We will graciously ask folks to only utilize that if you truly need the full refund – as part of the women’s climbing community, any support you can offer us during this incredibly stressful time is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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Hi everyone,

It is with big aspirations to respect all the time, resources and commitment that so many people – participants, sponsors, athletes, organizers and more – have put into this festival, we tried our hardest to figure out a way to continue with the festival in a way that mitigated the risk of COVID-19 appropriately. Unfortunately, we no longer feel that this is feasible and this is why it is with great regret that we have determined that it is no longer practical or ethical to continue with the Women’s Climbing Festival as planned.

We are, therefore, canceling the 2020 Flash Foxy Women’s Climbing Festival in Bishop, CA that was scheduled for next weekend, March 20th to the 22nd . Our hope is to have a smaller make-up event in the late summer/early Fall – pending where this pandemic takes us

Last week and earlier this week, with no official bans on travel or large gatherings imposed by municipal, state and national public health authorities, we issued statements to the effect that under the then, current circumstances, the festival would take place as planned. However, we cautioned that things might change and encouraged those concerned about travel to change their plans.

Since then, the number of cases have risen exponentially with significant increases in community transmissions across the country which is concerning with many of our participants and sponsors coming from all over the country. The California Department of Public Health issued an advisory shortly before midnight last night, stating that gatherings of 250 people or more should be postponed or canceled and there have been additional national travel bans issued against global travel. There is full expectation that further travel bans and/or quarantines are still to come.

Canceling the festival represents a major financial loss to our small grassroots company, owned and operated by women of color, in view of our contractual obligations to the festival venues, caterers, local partners, speakers and many others. Though we are facing large losses, we will be offering a partial refund of 50% of all registration and clinic fees to all participants, although this may take a few weeks to process. Alternatively, we’d like as ask registered participants who are able, to consider donating their registration fees to Flash Foxy to help offset our non-recoupable expenses. We would greatly appreciate this generous support.

Please email us at arianna@flashfoxy.com with your preference by April 1, 2020.

We appreciate everyone’s understanding of this incredibly hard decision we’ve had to make in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and hope to see you all at a future event. Wishing everyone good health and safety during this time.

Best,

Shelma and Arianna