I started out this year with a pretty sweet list of music festivals that I wanted to try to cover. Last year, I was recovering from my heart attack, so I only covered 3 [Epicenter, Carolina Country Music Fest and Firefly Music Festival]. So I decided to take on a few more this year including ones I have covered in the past [Merlefest and Hangout Fest] as well as new additions: Bonnaroo, Tortuga Music Festival and Voodoo Music + Arts Experience.
But then Coronavirus came along and lots of music festivals canceled or rescheduled. Everything changed. For me. For music. And for the world.
Music Festivals Canceled for 2020
Because of the global pandemic, many notable festivals have either canceled or postponed including Coachella and SXSW. Of the festivals I have been planning to attend, Merlefest was the first to cancel, followed closely by Epicenter. And then Firefly Music Festival announced its cancellation a few days ago.
*Hangout Fest is currently in limbo. They have canceled the originally scheduled dates of May 15th-17th and announced that they would make a more definite determination of whether the festival could be rescheduled in a couple of weeks. As of now, it looks like they are trying to reschedule, but until they release rescheduled dates, I am considering this festival canceled. Fingers crossed they can reschedule. They had a really sweet lineup.
Music Festivals Rescheduled For 2020
In an early move, Bonnaroo rescheduled for September 24-27 a few weeks ago. Tortuga Music Festival rescheduled for October 2-4 and Carolina Country Music Fest announced this week that they would now be holding their beach festival 9/17-9/20. Honestly, I am all about September at the beach, so I am really looking forward to this. Sadly, Joe Diffie was one of the acts lined up to play at this year’s Carolina Country Music Fest and he passed away a few days ago from complications due to Coronavirus. In a very classy move, his slot is now replaced with a Joe Diffie Tribute. I feel like, for me, this will be the festival that brings life back to normal.
If you can’t make it for the rescheduled dates for CCMF and you need to sell your tickets or if you are looking to buy some, there is now a Facebook group to help facilitate this.
Music Festivals Unaffected For 2020
Voodoo Music + Arts Experience seems to be the only festival on my checklist unaffected by the virus so far. I have my festival suggestions listed on the right side of this blog along with their dates. You can click the links to go to their sites for more information. I will also be updating the list as information becomes available. It’s still early in this pandemic though and things are rapidly evolving and changing. Let’s all just pray that this is over soon and that we can all get back to doing the things that we love.
Until then be safe everybody. <3
Were you planning to go to a music festival that was canceled? Tell us about it in the comments below or on social media.
