A CLASSICAL music festival in July is the latest event to be cancelled due to the pandemic.

The free, week long Conwy Classical Music Festival was due to celebrate its 16th anniversary at St Mary’s Church from

The cancellation follows numerous venues across North Wales - including Venue Cymru and Cineworld Llandudno - either postponing and cancelling events amid the quarantine.

Chris Roberts, festival organiser, said: "Following government advice about the Coronavirus pandemic, I have made the sad, but inevitable, decision to cancel the July 2020 Music Festival.

"All the performers have been most understanding and are keen to take part in the 2021 festival, if their diaries permit.

"In the end, the decision was easy to make because it is all about the people who are at the heart of festival - our amazing and loyal audiences, who come every year to support us, our enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers who do so much to make people feel welcome, and our concert artists, who have shown grace and understanding during an incredibly hard time across their sector.

"These people are why we must postpone, to protect and to keep safe."

The event's line up was to also feature a coup for the festival with Carla Maffioletti, a former principal soprano soloist of André Rieu’s orchestra, set to perform with Jutta Maria Böhner will perform as 'Almeh Luz' on Sunday, July 19.

Mr Roberts, a music teacher at Ysgol Dyffyrn Conwy, added: "We are in a period of unprecedented uncertainty, but let’s hope that, if we all adhere to social distancing, this strange and surreal existence will be behind us before too long, and we can move ahead with planning the 2021 festival.

"I’m sure that none of us will ever take our freedom to move about and socialise as we wish for granted again."

For updates on next yesar's festival, visit conwyclassicalmusic.co.uk.