Performances of Horrible Christmas at Cardiff Airport axed due to “the current Covid situation in Wales”
CARDIFF’s hopes of hosting a pantomime in 2020 have been dashed as the drive-in production of Horrible Christmas at Cardiff Airport has been cancelled.
600 cars were due to attend performances on Sunday, December 20, but audiences will now be automatically refunded to their original payment method.
Just six days before the show was set to be performed, a statement from Car Park Panto, the company behind the production, read: “Unfortunately, due to the current Covid situation in Wales and acting upon recommendations, we do not feel it is right for Car Park Panto to go ahead at Cardiff Airport this December.
“The Car Park Panto elves have been working tirelessly to try and make this work, but sadly we have been unable to find a solution that ensures all our customers’ safety and delivers the event that we promised.
“We are so sad not to be bringing the performance of Horrible Christmas to Cardiff, especially as it’s one of the Horrible Histories cast’s favourite cities to visit!”
Horrible Christmas is a production based on the best-selling Horrible Histories books and performed by The Birmingham Stage Company. It has toured for a number of years, telling the story of a young boy tasked with saving Christmas, featuring Charles Dickens, Oliver Cromwell and King Henry VIII.
This year, due to the closure of theatres, it is being performed in various outdoor spaces around the UK, with audiences watching from their cars. There are big screens either side of a makeshift stage to allow cars further back to see, while audio is transmitted through car radios.
The concept proved hugely popular when it was first announced, with families snapping up tickets in the absence of a traditional theatre pantomime. Tickets for the two Cardiff Airport shows on Sunday 20 December sold out in record time.
It was confirmed in August that this year’s production of Aladdin at Cardiff’s New Theatre – starring Gareth Thomas, Paul Chuckle and Gareth Gates – had been postponed until Christmas 2021.
Now there will be no drive-in show either, after First Minister Mark Drakeford released a statement last week admitting that the current Coronavirus situation in Wales is “very serious”.
Although the Car Park Panto statement made no reference to any specific restrictions or data, the move to cancel the show is likely to be based on the Welsh government’s decision to close all outdoor attractions from Monday, December 14.
Meanwhile, the number of cases and hospital admissions in Wales is rapidly growing and the infection rate is more than double that in any other part of the UK.
Joanne Ross, who was set to attend the drive-in pantomime with her husband and 10-year-old son, said: “We’re so disappointed, we had been looking forward to it since October. I can understand why they’ve done it though because the [Coronavirus] numbers are going crazy and we need to keep everyone safe.
“I’ve had a look on BritBox and there’s a few old pantomimes on there like Cinderella and Aladdin so we’ll just have to watch one on the telly this year!”
Ellen Parker and her family also had tickets. “It’s just a shame that something so Covid-safe has been included in the ‘outdoor entertainment’ bracket and had to be cancelled,” she said. “I would have felt more safe going to the pantomime than I would going into Cardiff city centre to go shopping. But with the rates rising as they are, something definitely had to be done and the government has to protect everyone.
“The plan for the weekend in our house now is to set up a big projector screen in our garden, order some pizzas and sit with coats and blankets watching a Christmas film. Hopefully they’ll be able to bring a performance of Horrible Histories to Cardiff in the new year.”
