With Europe now being the new centre of the Covid-19 pandemic, governments are implementing measures to mitigate the spread of virus and are getting even more drastic such as cancelling large gatherings and public events. In terms of airsoft, we have not heard of any large-scale airsoft event being called off by their organisers, until now --- Berget Events announced that they are cancelling Berget 18: Broken Arrow.

In an update they posted at their official website and Facebook page, the organisers regretfully say:

Dear Berget participants, friends & crew members.

We have made the difficult decision to postpone Berget 18 in consideration of the ongoing outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. We have never canceled/postponed an event before, and this decision has not come easy. But in this case there are exceptional circumstances that we feel are out of our control.

The Swedish Government has according to the Ordinance Act (Chapter 2, Section 15) decided to prohibit public gatherings and public events to counteract any further spread of the epidemic. The ban is announced in a regulation.

The regulation means that, from Thursday the 12th of March 2020 and until further notice, throughout the whole of Sweden, any organization of public gatherings and public events with more than 500 participants will be prohibited.

The government will continuously review the need for the regulation and it will be lifted when the ban is no longer needed. Here is a copy:

https://svenskforfattningssamling.se/…/2020…/SFS2020-114.pdf

It is currently not possible to know if the ban will still be in effect in June, but we believe the risk is high. Under these conditions we are not sure that we can deliver a high quality event should the ban be lifted close to the event.

It is also an uncertainty for our participants, partners and subcontractors not to know when to book or cancel the trip to the event. We have therefore chosen at this early stage to postpone the event until summer 2021.

More details will follow soon.

// Berget Crew

This is also a heads up to other organisers of airsoft and milsim events around the world. We understand that it will affect the livelihoods of organisers but we are in extraordinary times and everyone is expected to do his/her share to help mitigate the spread of the virus. It's time to assess if an event is worth pushing through as originally planned or postpone it until an all clear has been given by government and health officials.