A few weeks ago we brought you the exciting news that an F1 Fan Festival would be taking in place in Johannesburg (original story here). News this morning is that the SA F1 Fan Festival has been postponed. This isn’t completely surprising as the start of the Formula One season has been placed on hold, quite possibly until May, as we reported yesterday.

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Official statement

In a release issued this morning Formula 1 said that due to the ongoing global situation regarding Covid-19 the SA F1 Fan Festival scheduled for 29th March has been postponed for the safety of all fans and participants. Formula 1 along with Heineken, SAGP and the Gauteng Province remain committed to bringing the event back to South Africa. Any decision on rescheduling will be made at the right time from a public safety perspective.

In their own words

Ellie Norman, director of marketing and communications said, “Following the announcement from the World Health Organisation categorising Covid-19 as a pandemic earlier this week, we have made the unfortunate decision to postpone the festival.  Our fans health and safety is paramount and whilst we know this decision will be disappointing for our fans we believe this is the right decision at this time. We would like to thank all our partners and those involved in making the event happen, and we are fully committed to returning to bring the excitement of F1 back to South Africa”.

Warren Scheckter, CEO of SAGP said “Although everyone will be very disappointed, given the current situation regarding Covid-19, the decision to postpone the F1 Joburg Festival is the appropriate course of action. Hopefully it won’t be long before circumstances are such that we are able to reschedule the event, and we look forward to working with Formula 1 and Gauteng Province in our continued efforts to bring Formula 1 back to South Africa.”

Read our exclusive interview with Warren Scheckter here.

All fans who purchased tickets for the event will be offered a full refund. Tickets can be returned at any Shoprite, Checkers, Checkers Hyper, Computicket outlets or House & Home stores for full refunds until April 13, 2020. All uncollected tickets and print at home transactions made via Call Centre and Web will be refunded automatically and will reflect within 3-7 working days.