Major 2020 events happening in 2021

Numerous events in almost all the sectors relevant to global citizens either got cancelled or postponed to curb the spread of Covid-19 in the dreadful year of 2020. Here are some of the key events that are expected to return in 2021 -

Tokyo Olympics 2020

Expected to be the most costly and high profile Olympic event till date, the 2020 Summer event set in Japan was set to kick off in July 2020. However, with the Covid-19 pandemic wreaking havoc worldwide, a number of nations declined to join the event and the announcement to postpone the even came on 24 March. For the first time in 124 year, the modern summer Olympics have been moved during peacetime.

The Summer Olympics have been cancelled three times before in 1916, 1940, and 1944; all because of the two World Wars.

The postponed events are set to take place starting from 23 July 2021.

Euro 2020

The elite 24-team European championship football tournament that was scheduled to take place across Europe marking the 60th anniversary of Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) on 12 June this year, was postponed in March.

On 17 March, UEFA relayed the news of rescheduling of the event to 11 June 2021 after an emergency video conference with all 55 of its affiliated national federations.

17th Venice Biennale of Architecture

Following the suite of major events in other sectors of art, the 17th edition of La Biennale di Venezia (Venice Biennale of Architecture), one of the world's largest architectural events, was postponed in May.

Curated by Hashim Sarkis, dean of MIT's School of Architecture and Planning, the festival titled "How Will We Live Together?" was set to start from 23 August. Due to the increasing threat of coronavirus, it was announced that it will now take place from 21 May to 22 November 2021.

Cannes International Film Festival

Being one of the most anticipated film events, the 73rd edition of Cannes International Film Festival was scheduled to start on 12 May and end on 23 May. However, due to the pandemic, it was delayed multiple times and later in October the organisers resorted to hosting a limited three-day screening event where the only Palme d'Or of the year was awarded to Egyptian director Sameh Alaa's short film "I'm Afraid To Forget Your Face". The organisers promised to return to the original format in 2021.

Copa América 2020
Just like Euro, the regional football tournament for South American nations, the 2020 Copa America, was postponed until the summer of 2021.

Originally scheduled to take place from 12 June to 12 July 2020 as the 2020 Copa América, the 12-nation tournament was rescheduled on 17 March 2020 by CONMEBOL to take place from 11 June 2021.

Expo 2020

The 35th edition of world exposition, "Expo 2020" that was set to take place in Dubai projected to be a multibillion-dollar global innovation fair. All of its opportunities are now out of reach of everyone involved because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Touted the biggest exhibition in the world it originally scheduled for 20 October 2020 to 10 April 2021.

The event set to be the largest ever staged in the Arab world, was expected to attract some 24 million visitors.

The Bureau of International Expositions (BIE) postponed the six-month-long event in May and it will now be held from 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022.

COP26

The 26th UN Conference of Parties popularly known as COP26 was originally scheduled to be held earlier this year in Glasgow. The event was due to be one of the most important climate summits in recent years. Like previous COP summits, nations were expected to formally announce greater ambitions to tackle climate change.

The UN decided in May to postpone the conference for a full year to November 2021 following the deteriorating Covid-19 situation worldwide.