Just two weeks after postponing Sketchfest 2022 indefinitely, the two-week comedy festival announced Friday morning that they’re not trying this again until next year, and waiting it out for 2023.
SFist did not want to be writing posts like this in 2022, but 14 days into the new year, here we are. The popular annual comedy show Sketchfest announced Friday morning that they’re canceling the 2022 edition of the festival, the Chronicle reports. This comes almost two weeks to the day after the event postponed Sketchfest 2022 indefinitely, and raises the specter that this will be yet another year of cancellations and postponements.
📣Festival update: SF Sketchfest has been rescheduled for Jan. 20 - Feb. 5, 2023! The vast majority of existing shows will still be presented at the festival. All ticket holders will be contacted directly as soon as possible with new dates, details and options. pic.twitter.com/EdhssBlRjl
— SF Sketchfest (@SFSketchfest) January 14, 2022
“SF Sketchfest has been rescheduled for Jan. 20 - Feb. 5, 2023!,” organizers said in a Friday morning tweet. “The vast majority of existing shows will still be presented at the festival. All ticket holders will be contacted directly as soon as possible with new dates, details and options.”
This is obviously an Omicron wave concern, but an additional organizer statement indicates that securing venues was also a difficult for a show that could not yet not commit to dates.
“Due to venue availability, 2023 is the earliest we can present the festival as planned, but we can’t wait to safely laugh along with you then,” SF Sketchfest co-founders David Owen, Cole Stratton, and Janet Varney said in an online update. “While we’re disappointed to spend another year apart, the health and safety of our audience, performers, and staff comes first.”
Last year would have been the 20th SF Sketchfest, and they kind of held it in the form of a one-night livestream. Now the 20th iteration of the event is effectively delayed another year. Moreover, we would already be a week into the originally planned 20th SF Sketchfest, and the event page is sadly displaying all the postponed events that would be in progress.
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Image: SF Sketchfest, Pat Mazzara via Facebook