Nobel Peace Prize ceremony moves to new venue due to pandemic

This year's Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in the Norwegian capital of Oslo will not be held at the City Hall due to the coronavirus pandemic, organizers said on Tuesday.

The Norwegian Nobel Institute said that the December ceremony will instead be held at Oslo University Aula, which was used for the award ceremonies from 1947 to 1989.

A limited number of guests will be invited to the ceremony, and this year's laureate or laureates will either be present in person or participate online, organizers said.

The banquet that traditionally follows the Oslo award ceremony has been cancelled.

The winners of the Nobel awards are announced in October. The prize-giving ceremonies are held in Stockholm and Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel, who created the awards.

Traditional banquet cancelled

In neighbouring Sweden, the traditional banquet in Stockholm City Hall for the laureates in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics had already been cancelled due to the pandemic.

About 1,300 guests usually attend that event, including members of the Swedish royal family, diplomats, academics, politicians and leaders from the worlds of business and the arts.