SF Sketchfest, courtesy Bill Plympton.

Updated Jan. 14 at 8 a.m.: There won’t be an SF Sketchfest this year after all.

Producers of SF Sketchfest today announced that the 20th anniversary event—which was canceled in 2021 due to the pandemic, announced last November to begin later this month before another postponement—will not be held until January 2023.

The announcement was made due to concerns over the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

“While we’re disappointed to spend another year apart, the health and safety of our audience, performers and staff comes first,” SF Sketchfest cofounders Cole Stratton, David Owen and Janet Varney wrote in a news release.

The festival will now run from Jan. 20 to Feb. 5, 2023. Venue availability is the reason for such a long postponement, the producers wrote.

The producers also said that the vast majority of shows originally scheduled for this year will be carried over into 2023, with details to be announced in the coming weeks.

“Over the past week we have had many artists reach out to us to express concern about traveling and performing at a time when the Covid Omicron variant is causing increased positive cases and breakthrough infections around the country,” Stratton, Owen and Varney said.

Additionally, several festival staff and artists have recently tested positive for the virus, the announcement continued. New dates for the festival will be announced in the coming weeks.