by Shocking absolutely nobody, both the Moontower Comedy Festival in Austin and the New York Comedy Festival finally announced they were abandoning plans to put on fests in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moontower, which happens in April under normal conditions, first tried to postpone the 2020 event to September. But they gave up on that yesterday, instead announcing their ninth annual event will happen over three weekends in spring 2021, with the 10th Moontower happening next September. They’ve already announced the lineups for the three spring 2021 weekends. And yet…
We’ll stay tuned to see how that goes.
The New York Comedy Festival, meanwhile, will take its first year off since launching in 2004.
“While we were looking forward with great enthusiasm to bringing the very best comedy talent and fans from around the country and the world to New York City this fall,” said Caroline Hirsch, “the circumstances presented by the pandemic will prevent us from doing so,” says “This was an extremely difficult decision to make, but after extensive discussions with the creative community, our partners, sponsors and venues, we came to the unanimous decision that it would not be possible to try to bring the talent and fans together in New York City in a safe manner.”
The New York Comedy Festival plans to return Nov. 8-14, 2021.
