Switzerland

Dear Shankra Family,

In our last communication, when we announced that the Festival would not take place in 2025, we promised that we would work toward making it happen in 2026.

That is exactly what we have been doing throughout all these months, and now the time has come to share with you all the steps we have taken along the way.

The permit application for the Festival was already submitted in 2025, despite the geological conditions of the area still being highly uncertain. For this reason, in agreement with the Municipality of Lostallo, we had to postpone by several months any discussion about actually holding the Festival, purely for hydrogeological safety reasons.

Once the newly elected Town Council was properly established in January and the new hydrogeological risk map was published, we immediately organised a meeting to discuss the possibility of holding the event. Naturally, the conditions and requirements for running the Festival safely, following everything that has happened, have become considerably more stringent.

For this reason, we immediately embraced the Municipality of Lostallo's request to engage a specialised firm to draw up a comprehensive and effective safety concept. A detailed document was produced demonstrating that the Festival can indeed take place in full safety, through specific modifications, methodologies, and interventions designed to enable its complete realisation. The same was prepared in collaboration with SBIS SA, company specialized in risk analysis and management.

The Municipality of Lostallo subsequently approved the documentation and was finally able to issue the pre-authorisation.

From that moment on, the Shankra Festival machine started up with great enthusiasm, but before long we were confronted with serious difficulties.

The first of these, as is easy to imagine, was Time. Organising an event of this nature means collaborating with dozens of companies and hundreds of people, and unfortunately with only 120 days available could not guarantee the thoroughness and efficiency we are accustomed to working with, the very standards that have allowed us over the years to create the event you all know and love.

The second difficulty is even more insidious: the international situation. We are all aware of what is happening in the world. Beyond the distress, we have had to contend with an exponential rise in costs. You all know that previous editions have not left us in a strong financial position, so facing already considerable expenses with a very significant percentage increase has forced us to stop, reflect, and acknowledge that at this moment certain costs simply cannot be taken on.

This is not a pleasant truth, and it is very hard to accept, but sometimes reason must prevail over the heart in order for things to work in the long run.

We therefore felt it reasonable to postpone the event once again, albeit with profound disappointment and great pain in our hearts.

But, as you will have gathered from what we have shared, all the foundations for the Festival to take place in 2027 are in place, and our collaboration with the Municipality of Lostallo continues, with the goal of delivering a true return of Shankra.

We know that many of you are still waiting for news and instructions regarding refunds for 2024 tickets. In our previous post we already asked for your patience and promised that refunds will happen as soon as possible.

We renew that promise, though we ask for a little more patience still. For all those who remain eager to share in the return of Shankra, please know that tickets already purchased are valid for the 2027 edition.

Mahi and Madu Murugar

Shankra Team

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