Northampton Fun Colour Rush organisers apologise to racers who turned up to cancelled event

The organisers of the Fun Colour Rush in Northampton have issued an apology to participants, who did not receive an email about the event being postponed.

The Fun Colour Rush was supposed to take place on Saturday, September 4 but, unbeknown to a large group of racers and fundraisers who arrived at Abington Park that morning, the event had been postponed to next year.

A spokesman for Fun Colour Rush said: "The difficult decision to postpone this year's fun colour rush was not taken easily but with much uncertainty and low confidence in mass participation events this summer as well as the months of planning required to deliver a safe fun engaging event for our community."

Fun Colour Rush told the Chronicle & Echo that an email was sent out to participants alerting them of the cancellation on July 22 and that 67 percent of recipients had opened the email.

Despite a number of participants not seeing the email, no social media post was made to confirm the cancellation.

A second email was then sent out to participants reminding them of the cancellation on the evening of Friday September 3 after Chronicle & Echo published a preview of the event.

Eighty four percent of recipients had opened the second email, however, the link to buy tickets for the September 4 date was still live at this point in time.

Any participants who signed up to the Fun Colour Rush as a team without including the email addresses of all team mates would not have been contacted.

One of the disappointed participants, who turned up to Abington Park the following morning (September 4), Rich Watson, said: "We turned up on Saturday morning along with a hundred or so others to find there was nothing going on.

"There were no signs up and none of us had received an email cancelling the event. A runner who had parked behind us said she had been sponsored to do the event so was really disappointed.

"There were children there dressed up and ready to run and their parents were trying to locate a phone number to find out what was going on. We had a nine year old in our team in tears as she had been training over the summer school holiday for the event."

Michelle Douglas, who also turned up to the event, commented on Facebook: "I managed to get a refund from them today. We turned up as we had no communication that it was cancelled."

When approached by Chronicle & Echo, the spokesperson for the Fun Colour Rush disputed previous claims that around a hundred people would have turned up to the postponed event, saying: "This number is simply not true and biased. Less than 100 people signed up for the event and we had a high level of open rates on our communication."

The annual popular fundraising event invites participants to run, walk or dance around a five kilometer course at Abington Park - all to raise money for their individually chosen charities. The colour rush is organised into seperate waves of different colours, each setting off at different times and beginning with a fun warm-up and colour blasts.

Food, drinks and ice creams are usually available and participants receive a Fun Colour Rush t-shirt and are awarded a medal when they finish the course.

The spokesman for Fun Colour Rush continued: "We are sorry for anyone that did not receive the email communication with regards to the postponement. We have delivered countless safe fun mass participants events in the town since 2015 and are very proud to of supported hundreds of local charities.

"The Fun Colour Rush organisers have decided to postpone all events in 2021. We have not taken this step of postponement lightly and have done our utmost to find solutions and alternatives. In what can only be described as challenging times for us all, we are disappointed to share this news.

"The team has been working hard to secure rescheduled Covid-safe dates to bring the Colour Rush Fun back next spring or summer."

The Northampton Fun Colour Rush will take place next year at the same location with dates to be confirmed. All entries will automatically transfer over to the new date with no need for any action from participants. All registered participants should have received an email today (Thursday, September 9) with an update.

The spokesman continued: "We want to reassure you that we will be doing all we can to make The Fun Colour Rush events Covid-safe. We will keep sharing updates on our Facebook & Event Page.

"This past year has also put a lot of extra strain on local and national charities to carry out their vital work within our community. We have been working hard behind the scenes to ensure the Fun Colour Rush community can still support charities close to your heart this year.

"Thank you for your continued support. We will endeavour to promote physical and mental wellbeing for individuals and the wider community. More details coming soon. Stay connected, stay safe, stay strong. We look forward to greeting you in the colour soon."

To keep up to date with the latest news about the Northampton Fun Colour Rush, follow their Facebook page.