The organizers of the Pitcher Festival of Creativity have announced that the 2020 Festival will proceed in a different format due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier in March, a shift from the original scheduled dates to June was announced following the postponement of Cannes Lions to October. However, with the eventual cancellation of Cannes Lions 2020 due to COVID-19 and the plan to hold an online event, "Creativity Matters" by Cannes Lions throughout the month of June with activities peaking in the week that Cannes Lions should have held, Pitcher Festival has now been scheduled to hold from 2 - 4 July 2020.
Before the postponement of Pitcher Festival, several preliminary stages of the Festival had been concluded. These include the Miami Ad School Scholarship Competition, The Cannes Lions Roger Hatchuel Academy Selection Competition, the Young Lions Competitions in 4 categories, Future Creative Leaders Academy Dubai Lynx Prize, Selection of the See It Be It Africa participants as well as the commencement of judging for the Pitcher Awards.
According to Nnamdi Ndu, Chief Executive Officer, CHINI Africa, Cannes Lions official festival representatives in Nigeria and organizers of the Pitcher Festival, "The goal of the Pitcher Festival of Creativity is to showcase how creativity helps people solve problems. Now the world is threatened by COVID-19, not just the disease, but the collateral impact on livelihoods, religion, leisure and our very humanity. This is not the time for creativity to take the backseat, but as an organisation that champions creativity, we'd like to use every opportunity that we have to inspire creatives everywhere to step up to the challenge of creating solutions for the various problems already caused and those that will arise because of this pandemic."
The new changes will allow virtually all aspects of the Festival to migrate online or to television. For instance, participants in the various competitions will be able to make presentations to the jurors online, the seminars will transform to webinars and the awards show will be broadcast on television and streamed online. Details of the new changes will soon be released by the organizers.
Meanwhile, Nnamdi Ndu noted that nothing has changed in terms of the essence of the Festival and that in fact the online streaming and the television broadcast will provide new opportunities and offer greater visibility to winners.