Although, non-essential shops, including car dealerships were allowed to reopen their doors on 11 January after a forced closure of two weeks, the ministry for small and medium-sized enterprises, on Thursday, announced that it would cancel authorisations for stores to open on Sundays during the period of the winter sales from 24 January to 14 February. 

The news came much to the dismay of car dealerships for whom Sundays are particularly important during the Autofestival, which was initially scheduled to take place from 25 January to 8 February. Fedamo has reacted by deciding to extend the 57th edition of the festival by five days, until 13 February. 

"We regret this decision to close on Sunday. In reaction to the closure on these two Sundays, and in order to be able to space out the attendance of the showrooms, the Fedamo council has taken the decision to extend the Autofestival until 13 February 2021 included, in order to allow any interested party to discover new models in complete safety," the federation stated in a press release. "We would like to point out that special conditions are already in place and that car dealers have already implemented all sanitary measures to welcome visitors. Customers are therefore asked not to wait for the official start of the Autofestival on 25 January, but to visit their dealership as of now."

Initially, the 2021 edition of the festival had already been extended to take place over a period of two weeks, instead of just one as in previous years, in order to allow customers to visit showrooms while adhering to the hygiene and social distancing measures currently in place in light of the covid-19 pandemic. 

This article was originally published in French on Paperjam.lu and has been translated and edited for Delano.