The organisers of the Holt Festival have announced the popular celebration of the arts will be returning to north Norfolk this summer.

The Holt Festival, which has been running since 2009, normally takes place in the summer and sees the town and a number of its venues play host to actors, poets, musicians and performers.

Like many events, the 2020 Holt Festival had to be cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, the organisers have announced the festival will be returning to North Norfolk this summer, with the main programme scheduled to take place from July 28 - July 31.

Lady Anwen Hurt, the festival director said she was "very excited" that the event would be returning but was slightly apprehensive how social distancing and the pandemic would affect things.

She said: "I'm very excited and I think all of the board and the trustees are. There's a slight apprehension, we would like to get everything out there but there's still that little question mark over exactly how everything will work."

Lady Hurt said it was wonderful to see the arts events returning, both for audiences and performers.

"It's so important for both sides of the stage, obviously artists are desperate for live events, live music, theatre and of course all of our actors and performers who have had just the most dreadful year. Financially difficult and they are not doing what they do, for an actor not to able to be out there acting in front of an audience, that's what they do," she said.

Lady Hurt said festival organisers would announce the line-up for this year's Holt Festival in June, and were waiting to see if government guidance on venue capacity changed.

"We will do something come what may, there's just a slight concern that we may have to go back to some sort of social distancing but we will have one day of outdoor events.

"It all seems very positive at the moment, which is fantastic, but we know this can turn around very quickly," she said.



Further details, including the line-up for this year's event, are expected to be announced in June.