Yesterday Tom McGuigan the Event Director of The Overland Show made a a sad, but expected, announcement after the government’s proclamations this week, that the show will not be happening. Here is what he posted:

Hello everyone. We understand this news will come as a great disappointment to all of you, but we are making the difficult decision to cancel the joint “Adventure Overland Show” + ““International Campervan Show” scheduled 19-20 September 2020 at Stratford-upon-Avon Racecourse.

Our announcement the other day that we were still going ahead was and still is based on valid guidance. The Events Industry Forum (who manage the Purple Guide which is used by all major festivals and events) have stated that the new restrictions on groups relates to gatherings of groups WITHIN an event, and does NOT apply to the total number of attendees allowed to attend an event which is established by our risk assessment. We wanted to make sure you were aware of the reasons we made our initial announcement so you did not think we were in any way being unsafe or uncaring toward the current situation.

However, in order to continue we must make sure that our event can be done safely. This led us to make the decision to perform a review of our risk assessments and stewarding numbers to ensure we can safely accommodate the new restrictions of groups of up to 6. In consultation with both the council and the venue we have decided that the risk of continuing unfortunately outweighs any benefits our event may bring. We also understand and appreciate that the venue themselves do take a burden of this risk, and if anything were to happen it would not only reflect poorly on us as an event but on the venue as well. We want to respect the local community and our attendees and not expose anyone to any undue risks. With that in mind it is with great difficulty that we have had to make this announcement.

For those of you who have already booked your tickets, be they for traders or visitors, you don’t need to do anything. These will automatically be rolled over to next year. We’d greatly appreciate if you would visit us in April as we’re very much looking forward to meeting you and seeing your vehicles. By keeping your tickets until next year you’d also be helping us out a huge amount as it will allow us the budget to build up an even better show for next year. However, if you cannot make those dates then we fully understand. Simply reach out to us and we’ll process a refund for you.

Display vehicle owners, we will process your passes for the Spring edition of the event 24-25 April 2021.

From all of our team here we wish you all the best, stay safe and let’s all hope together that 2021 is better for everyone. Really sorry (especially to the traders whose livelihoods are now in even greater peril), we really did try!

– also on behalf of Damo Jones, face of the “International Campervan Show”. A non-paid volunteer he’s worked tirelessly on your behalf, he really doesn’t deserve this. Thanks all the same, life can be cruel sometimes!!!