This year’s Cannes Film Festival has been postponed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The event, which was due to take place between May 11-22, has now been postponed until July 6-17, the organisers revealed in a statement earlier today (January 27).

The Festival de Cannes organisers said: “As announced last autumn, the Festival de Cannes reserved the right to change its dates depending on how the global health situation developed.”

The decision to postpone was expected by most, especially after Aïda Belloulid, the festival’s spokeswoman, told The New York Times that the event might be pushed back because of the pandemic, as cases were surging across Europe at the time.

She said that regardless of when the event takes place it will be “a classic Cannes,” including stars on the Croisette.

It’s the second year that Cannes has been affected by the coronavirus after last year’s festival was cancelled. The 2020 event had previously announced its original May dates would not be possible, but that there was a potential postponement looking at late June and early July.

However, following the news that France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, had extended the nationwide lockdown and forbid any festivals or large gatherings until mid July, the festival was forced to cancel. In its place, Cannes held a “special edition” in October featuring a handful of films.

Meanwhile, Glastonbury 2021 has been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, Michael and Emily Eavis announced last week.

The festival will take an enforced fallow year for the second summer in a row, after the 2020 edition of the Somerset event was also called off last March due to COVID-19 concerns.

“With great regret, we must announce that this year’s Glastonbury Festival will not take place, and that this will be another enforced fallow year for us,” organisers Michael and Emily Eavis wrote on Twitter to announce the news.