The organisers of the Winchester Heritage Open Days festival are delighted to announce that this year's 2020 festival will be going ahead, with free events and local stories at its heart.

Since 2016, Winchester’s Heritage Open Days festival has grown to become an important event in the local calendar, with thousands of visitors attending the programme of events.

This year, with the uncertainty surrounding when cultural events will be able to run once more following the Covid-19 Pandemic, it has become clear that the traditional format of the festival will not be possible in September. The focus this year will be digital.

Commenting on the decision to focus on digital events this year, Festival Director Nicky Gottlieb said,

“We are enormously grateful to all our sponsors, supporters, volunteers and event organisers who have helped the Festival grow to become the success that it is. I am sure that there will be people who look forward to the events every year and will be disappointed by our decision not to hold events in the usual way this year.
However, it is important the festival is safe, is inclusive and does not add further cost or burden to businesses and organisations who at this time are getting back on their feet. Whilst we hope one or two organisations may be able to hold some in-person events (in line with government guidance at the time of the festival), our focus will be on encouraging digital events. We do this with the expectation that this year’s festival will be smaller.
We are working hard to plan for a digital festival this September, and this will include our very own podcast channel. We very much hope to welcome all our events and visitors back in the usual way in September 2021.”

Further details on the programme for the 2020 Digital Heritage Open Days Festival and the launch of our podcast channel in August will be released in due course.