Covid cancellations for Lowestoft Christmas Day swim and Ely Cathedral concert
Festive dips and a cathedral carol concert are the latest Christmas events to be cancelled as the country gets to grips with a new wave of Covid cases.
Ely Cathedral said it had cancelled its Hark! The Herald Christmas carol concert due to the rising number of coronavirus infections.
The performance had sold more than 1,000 tickets and was due to take place this Wednesday, 22 December.
Announcing its decision, the cathedral said it had to put the wellbeing and safety of audience members, staff and performers first.
Its smaller concerts - with up to 300 people - will go ahead on 22, 23 and 24 December.
Meanwhile, the Lowestoft Christmas Day swim has also been cancelled.
Matt Stebbings, event volunteer for the SLT Group which runs the swim, said organisers were "truly gutted" but felt "the safest thing for the town" was to scrap it.
"People's safety at this time of year is paramount and even with restrictions in place, the event would put a large number of people in the same place and the Omicron variant is highly transmissible," he said.
North Norfolk Beach Runners had already decided to postpone its Cromer Boxing Day dip. Organisers hope it will still take place in a few weeks' time so that money can continue to be raised for its chosen charity Sarcoma UK.
Chairman Clive Hedges said the decision had been made "with heavy hearts but with everyone's safety in mind".
It follows announcements by Thursford that the remaining dates of its Christmas Spectacular had been cancelled because too many of its cast and crew were isolating due to Covid.
The show - which attracts and audience from across the UK - had hoped to resume after the weekend but further sickness forced organisers to admit defeat.
Meanwhile the last of Mid Norfolk Railway's Polar Express train rides were also called off.
And the Chrysalis Theatre in Milton Keynes was forced to cancel its production of the Peter Pan Christmas show "in light of the worsening Covid-19 pandemic and its recent impact on some cast members".
The pantomime was due to run to 2 January and starred CJ de Mooi as Captain Hook and Mr Blobby.