600 London shows axed over Omicron fears

London’s Vault festival has been cancelled because of Covid.

The event should have kicked off on January 25, and would have featured more than 600 comedy, theatre and cabaret shows in a labyrinth of venues beneath Waterloo station.

In a statement, organisers said: ‘We have made the gut-wrenching decision to cancel Vault Festival 2022.

‘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.

‘It is with broken hearts that we make this statement. We ask for your patience while we turn our focus to supporting our staff and artists, and we ask that you continue to treat each other with kindness, respect, and love as we face this challenge together.’

Vault festival was cut short by a week in 2020 as lockdown bit, and last year’s event had to be cancelled completely, too.

Comedians who had been scheduled to launch shows at this year’s event included Thaniya Moore with a stand-up show about bullying, Elf Lyons looking at the relationship between herself and her deaf friend Brian Duffy in a performance conducted entirely in British Sign Language, and Christian Brighty mocking period drama tropes.

Lyons, pictured with Duffy, tweeted: ‘Gutted about @VAULTFestival - the programme was incredible. If anyone would like to programme @MrBrianDuffy and I to perform our Bank heist show (it is in BSL with silly sound foley by me) then please get in contact.’

Audiences are being offered asked if they would donate the value of their ticket to help support the festival, or they can receive a refund.

Published: 4 Jan 2022