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Cleveland's Outdoor BorderLight Theatre Festival Postponed Due To COVID-19

"A Kingdom, A Chasm" by Vagabond Inventions at the 2019 BorderLight Festival. [Steve Wagner / BorderLight Festival]
Three actors sit on chairs on top of a car in "A Kingdom, A Chasm" by Vagabond Inventions at the 2019 BorderLight Festival. [Steve Wagner / BorderLight Festival]

Cleveland’s BorderLight Theatre Festival announced Friday it will not be hosting the outdoor event planned for July due to COVID-19.

Citing factors such as a low vaccination rate and contagious variants, the festival postponed its in-person programming for July 22-24 until next summer. There will still be some virtual offerings this year as planned.

A statement from BorderLight’s co-founders and board called the decision “heart wrenching” and also noted “delays in planning, challenges in finalizing funding, and difficulties in contracting” during the pandemic.

The BorderLight International Theatre + Fringe Festival launched in 2019 as a biennial event, with indoor and outdoor programming.

Jeff Pence, one of the festival directors, told ideastream in March that the hope for this year’s event was to have outdoor productions around Cleveland.

The festival’s target date for in-person productions is now July 2022, according to the news release.

Carrie Wise is the deputy editor of arts and culture at Ideastream Public Media.