
2020 Women’s Climbing Festival Bishop Cancelled
UPDATE: 3/12/20
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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