Anne Lister Birthday Weekend in Halifax cancelled as 2,200 Gentleman Jack fans stranded

Many fans of BBC period drama Gentleman Jack, which tells the story of 19th-century Halifax landowner Anne, who were booked to attend were from overseas, meaning they are now unable to travel due to border closures and flight cancellations.

The organisers of the weekend - which was due to take place from April 1-5 - have taken the decision to cancel all events.

Brighton-based lesbian travel specialists Diva Destinations put together the schedule based on a previous tour they had run of locations connected to Anne's life.

The weekend was to feature talks from Gentleman Jack director Sally Wainwright and author Helena Whitbread, who decoded Anne's diaries in the 1980s.

The 500 tickets released for Wainwright's appearance at Halifax Minster sold out faster than Glastonbury Festival, and a total of 2,200 people bought tickets for the weekend via a Facebook fan page when they went on sale last November.

Many of the attendees were due to travel from the US and Canada, where Gentleman Jack was broadcast by HBO. The majority of customers were lesbian women.

The itinerary included Shibden Hall, The Piece Hall, Halifax Library - where the original Lister journals are kept - and Somerset House, which was once the Lister family's bank, Rawson's.

It also featured St Matthew's Church in Lightcliffe, where Anne's same-sex partner Ann Walker is buried, the remains of the Walkers' estate Crow Nest, and Anne's grave at Halifax Minster.

A visit to York was planned to include tours of Holy Trinity Church on Goodramgate, where Anne 'married' Ann Walker during an Easter service, and King's Manor, a university building which was once a girls' boarding school attended by Anne.

A statement on the event's official Facebook page read: "It is with an incredibly heavy heart that I am announcing the cancellation of ALBW 2020.

"Believe me, typing that is one of the hardest things I’ve had to do, ever.

"I had hoped to hang on long enough so that some country's leader might finally issue an effective statement regarding closing borders or cancelling events or something that would alert the airlines to the fact that their passengers had no control over not being able to use their ticket.

"But leadership is sorely lacking these days. So I must do their job for them and pull the plug.

"I am tremendously sorry about this. I wanted to be able to do this one thing for you. The good news is, the major airlines are, at the very least, giving you the option of changing your ticket and using it with no change fee. But I would absolutely tell your agent that the event has been cancelled. If you need any kind of written statement from me, please let me know.

"As many of you are aware, this entire event has been purely straight from the heart. I wanted nothing more than to stand at the front of the Minster and welcome all of you to a weekend of community, in the place where Anne Lister was baptised and buried.

"I so looked forward to sharing this one thing with you, as you sat beneath those stone arches; over 200 years ago, a lonely young woman sat in one of those pews, thinking about her life, about the trick that had been played on her, and wondering how she would ever, ever, find another heart to connect to her own.

"Her desolation at that moment must have been overwhelming. I was so looking forward to telling her that we knew how she felt, that each of us had experienced that same moment, and that now, knowing who she was, how she had lived, we had come to Halifax not only in honour of her, but to honour each other, give each other the continued strength and courage that each of us have longed for in our own complex lives.

"That won’t be happening this yea - but the good news is, it WILL be happening in 2021.

"We don’t have the dates yet but we will let you know soon. The challenge for next year is that Anne’s birthday falls on Easter Sunday, so no Minster for us that weekend. We will try to keep it close to that time, however."

All tickets for the event will bne refunded and any pre-purchased merchandise will be posted to the customer's home.