One of the most celebrated performing arts festivals in the world, the Avignon Theatre Festival has fallen victim to the COVID-19 pandemic, following its Edinburgh and Berlin counterparts.

The annual grand celebration of drama, which includes "In" and "Off" festivals and was scheduled to run from July 3 through July 23, has been called off due to the ongoing pandemic situation in the country, the organizers announced on Monday.

"The conditions have not been met to allow the 74th edition to take place," said the festival organizers in a statement.

According to the organizers, they made the decision after having "taken note of the declarations of the President of the Republic."

This move follows France's enhanced and extended pandemic prevention measures announced by President Emmanuel Macron in an address to the nation earlier on Monday.

In his third prime-time televised speech on the coronavirus pandemic, the French president said that major festivals and events with a large audience could not take place until mid-July at the earliest, in addition to extending the lockdown until May 11.

It was also announced that cinemas and theaters nationwide must remain shut down for now.

The Avignon Theatre Festival, best-known and biggest event in France's theatrical world, attracts reportedly thousands of aspiring artists and around 700,000 visitors from across the world each year.

Since its founding in 1947, the Festival has only been canceled once in the midst of the intermittent workers' disruptions and protests in 2003.

The coronavirus crisis has ravaged France's sparkling spring and summer cultural calendar, with the famed Cannes Film Festival also not taking place as planned in May.

France on Monday reported 574 new deaths over the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 14,967 since the coronavirus broke out, according to its health ministry.

The ministry confirmed that the epidemic had reached a "high plateau," with more than 98,000 infections recorded across the country so far.