Event update – 17/04/20

• The ESA Summer live event is being rescheduled to 3 – 11 October
• ESA Summer Online is taking its place, 25 July to 2 Aug.
• Both summer events will be raising money for Alzheimersfonden.
• ESA Corona Relief is announced, raising money for Save the Children at the end of May (28 to 31 May)

When we wrote our first statement a month ago on 16/03 there had been 150,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide. In the past month, this has spiked to 2 million, and we have seen an unprecedented global shutdown of workplaces, leisure and travel activities.

ESA is heavily reliant on runners from across Europe and the world flying to the event. While it seems likely that many of the lockdown restrictions currently in place will be lifted in time for July, we estimate about 80% of our attendees arrive through Copenhagen airport. This means continuing to hold the event in it’s original dates presents an unacceptable level of risk should large gathering restrictions have to be re-imposed, particularly the closure of the border with Denmark, or should airlines have not resumed their full schedule.

As a result, ESA is rescheduling the Summer main event to the autumn. The new dates will be Saturday 3 October to Sunday 11 October. The venue, the Quality Hotel View, will remain unchanged. This event will have a provisional attendee cap of 400, which can grow if necessary.

We are very sorry to anyone who wanted to attend the ESA main event and can no longer attend. We will be opening submissions for this rescheduled event in due course.

On the original dates in July ESA will be holding ESA Summer Online! This fully-online event will still be fundraising for Alzheimersfonden. Depending on the quality of submissions, we may extend a few extra days! Submissions for ESA Summer Online will be opening shortly after ESA Corona Relief concludes. We look forward to seeing what you have to offer.

ESA is today announcing ESA Corona Relief. Running over the final weekend of May for four days total, ESA Corona Relief will be raising money for Save the Children’s COVID-19 campaign. Submissions are opening two weeks after the conclusion of ESA Together.