The award ceremony for the Nobel Peace Prize will be held in an abridged format this year out of coronavirus-related precautions, with the venue moved from the City Hall of the Norwegian capital of Oslo to a local university, Nobel Institute Director Olav Njolstad said on Tuesday
MURMANSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd September, 2020) The award ceremony for the Nobel Peace prize will be held in an abridged format this year out of coronavirus-related precautions, with the venue moved from the City Hall of the Norwegian capital of Oslo to a local university, Nobel Institute Director Olav Njolstad said on Tuesday.
The Nobel prizes in Chemistry, Literature, Physics and Medicine are normally awarded in Stockholm and only the Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo.
"There are two reasons for the move of the ceremony. The Nobel award ceremonies at the [Stockholm] Concert Hall were canceled. We would like to get aligned with Stockholm and demonstrate that this year is a special one," Njolstad was quoted as saying by Norway's NRK broadcaster.
The second reason is that the Oslo City Hall, originally designed to accommodate 1,000 people, has had its capacity reduced to 200 people amid the coronavirus-related restrictions, according to the head of the Nobel Institute, which assists the work of the Nobel Committee.
The Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony is scheduled for October 9.
It will be held at the auditorium of the University of Oslo, like in the period from 1947-1989, and only 100 guests will be invited to attend, according to Njolstad. The traditional 250-guest Nobel banquet at the Oslo Grand Hotel after the ceremony will be canceled altogether.
