We are now beginning to see which Cathedrals have been hit hardest by the loss of revenue in 2020. I’d made a booking for a choir to sing for a week in Salisbury in 2021, and this week got a letter from the Cathedral saying that it would have to cancel all bookings from visiting choirs. The reasons were partly logistical – understandably as their choir room is awkward to get to at the best of times, although on some previous visits we have rehearsed elsewhere. But the letter made it clear that visiting choirs were being scrapped for the moment as a cost-cutting measure. It’s worth noting that Salisbury has lost tourism revenue not just as a result of the 2020 pandemic, but also in the wake of the Novichok poisoning there in 2018. Other Cathedrals are having to make cutbacks, although I don’t know of any which have done so by stopping visiting choirs.
Fortunately Portsmouth Cathedral had a vacancy for a choir for the week we had booked at Salisbury, and we are not the only Salisbury refugees they are taking on. In fact we had been scheduled to go to Portsmouth in 2020, so the rearranged week (if it happens as planned) will please the choir members who were disappointed this year.