This year’s edition of Ottawa’s Bluesfest has been cancelled – but organizers are urging fans to hold on to their tickets until next summer.
“This cancellation will cause financial hardship for our organization,” executive director Mark Monahan wrote. “We encourage you to think about keeping your ticket for next year which will help support our local non-profit organization to continue to retain our staff, employ local artists, and deliver an exceptional festival in 2021.”
Bluesfest was scheduled to run July 9 to 19 at LeBreton Flats with acts like Blink-182, Boyz II Men, Billy Talent, The National and hometown singer Alanis Morissette. Monahan said he has already re-booked some of the acts for next year’s festival.
Monahan said refunds will be issued to fans who want them. “We understand how important that is to many in this time of uncertainty.”
The cancellation announcement on Tuesday came a week earlier than promised (an April 9th message on the festival’s website said a decision would be announced in the first week of May) and certainly as no surprise to anyone following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Still, Monahan claimed that “even a month ago” the cancellation of the festival was “unthinkable.” He said his team “weighed our options and assessed the potential outcomes of various ways forward.”
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The Festival d’été de Québec (FEQ), set for the same period as Bluesfest, pulled the plug. Organizers said the decision to cancel until 2021 instead of postpone was due in part to the anticipated “reluctance of many festival goers to take part in crowded events after the crisis.”
Around the same time FEQ was cancelled, U.S. bioethicist Zeke Emanuel told The New York Times that large gatherings like concerts and music festivals are unlikely to happen again until “fall 2021 at the earliest.”