Panaji, Nov 7 (IANS): Sunburn Goa 2020 will not be held in December this year. The organisers issued a statement on Saturday saying they hoped to announce new dates for the music festival soon, keeping in mind the Covid situation.

This comes a day after the Goa government announced cancellation of the electronic dance music festival owing to possible health hazards posed by the event in the time of the coronavirus.

The statement read: "In consultation with the authorities, we have decided to re-schedule Sunburn Goa 2020, originally planned for December 27, 28 and 29 in Vagator, Goa."

"At the same time, we noted the concerns highlighted by a few relating to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. We have been constantly monitoring the Covid-19 situation both in Goa and across India. The plans for hosting a small, safe and socially distanced Sunburn event was made in view of the gradually improving situation and in anticipation of this to continue," said the statement.

The "absolute priority is and always has been the safety and well-being of every single attendee of the festival", the prganisers added.

"We would also like to clarify that the plans being drawn up for Sunburn Goa have been in line with the guidelines for outdoor shows specified in the Unlock 5.0 program.

"Another pertinent point to note is that our industry has been practically shut down for nine months now, as a result of which the livelihood of tens of thousands of people is at stake. This is also a small attempt to re-start our industry in a safe and secure manner, just as most other industries have already done so," read the statement.

For now, in consultation with the authorities, it has been decided "against organising Sunburn Goa on our regular dates in December this year. In the next few weeks, we will hopefully continue to see an improvement in the COVID-19 numbers and overall situation which will enable us to ascertain new dates for the festival. We hope to be able to announce this very soon", the organisers stated.