Stratford Festival Cancels Opening Night Performance After Bomb Threat

A bomb threat was made at the Stratford Festival last night, causing a full evacuation of the premises. On the advice of police, the festival cancelled the opening night performance of The Tempest, half an hour before the performance was set to begin.

According to the Stratford Beacon Herald, at about 6:45 p.m., the Stratford Police Service received a call that explosives had been placed at the Stratford Festival, which prompted police to evacuate the Festival and Avon theatres.

"Once the officers came to us and they told us that there had been this threat made, we felt it was important that we immediately take action and move on this," said Festival artistic director Antoni Cimolino. "We will not know whether or not this was serious and, at that moment, we couldn't make that determination. We had to act in the benefit of public safety and follow our policy."

Following the evacuations, officers searched the buildings for suspicious items or packages. Police were still searching the theatres hours after the festival was set to begin. Police indicated they had no suspects at this time. At a 9:15 p.m. news conference, Sam Theocharis, acting deputy chief of the Stratford Police Service, said 15 officers were searching festival properties and grounds and would continue to do so into Monday night.

Cimolino said Stratford performances would continue as scheduled on Tuesday - including the opening night of The Music Man at the Festival Theatre. He said that there will be bag checks at the door for audience members and it is likely that extra security will be hired until the nature and seriousness of the threat had been fully investigated.

This is the first time in Stratford Festival's 65 years of performances that an opening night was cancelled.

This morning, Stratford Police confirmed on Twitter that the buildings are clear and have been turned back over to the festival staff.

Cimolino said that the Stratford Festival will be hosting a second event in the near future. All ticket purchases will be honoured and ticketholders for tonight's performance will be contacted by the Festival.

"It's profoundly disappointing. This is a tremendous loss," Cimolino said. "And of course, we will have an opening soon but there's something about this that leaves a really sad taste."

Read more at the Stratford Beacon Herald.