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Vault Festival is one of London’s wildest cultural events, featuring theatre, cabaret and all sorts of other performing arts. Every year since 2012, it’s been held in the labyrinthine vaults under Waterloo station. After a devastating year in 2020 when the festival was forced to shut early, and no festival at all in 2021, this year was meant to see Vault’s triumphant return, for its tenth anniversary.
Unfortunately, its organisers have made the extremely difficult decision to cancel the programme, which was due to run from January 25 to March 20. The challenges that the Omicron variant poses to staff and performers’ safety, health and mental wellbeing were too great to be overlooked.
The official statement expresses the organisers’ sadness: ‘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.’
Despite the inevitable disappointment, Vault has asked that its supporters ‘continue to treat each other with kindness, respect and love as we face this challenge together’.
According to WhatsOnStage, ticket-holders are being contacted and given the option to donate the value of their booking or receive a full refund.
Mind-blowing theatre, gigs, films and exhibitions to look forward to in 2022.