Some good news and some bad news. First the bad news, Sonic Temple festival and Epiceter will go on hiatus in 2021, and hopefully return in 2022.
The good news is that Danny Wimmer Presents have announced dates for three festivals that are currently scheduled to happen this year.
Inkcarceration Music & Tattoo Festival will take place from 7/23 to 7/25 in Mansfield, OH at the Ohio State Reformatory
Louder Than Life will go down on September 23-26 in Louisville, KY at the Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center
Welcome To Rockville returns on November 11-14 in Daytona Beach, FL at the Daytona International Speedway
And, as previously announced Aftershock Festival is still scheduled for October 7-10 in Sacramento, CA at Discovery Park.
Danny Wimmer commented on the situation saying: “Taking our festivals down last year was one of the most painful experiences our company has ever lived through. And it wasn’t just painful for us, it was hard on the bands, fans, partners, cities and vendors.
It has become clear to us that we will not be able to have our festivals this spring, and for a variety of reasons, it is not possible to produce all of our annual festivals in the window of Fall 2021, so we made the difficult decision to only produce ‘Aftershock‘, ‘Welcome To Rockville‘ and ‘Louder Than Life‘ this year.
These are our longest running and most geographically diverse festivals. Focusing on these three events, along with ‘Inkcarceration Festival‘ at the end of July gives as many fans as possible, from all over the country, the chance to rock again.”
The news comes as certain festivals have announced cancelations. Earlier this week, Califonia's Coachella festival scheduled for the spring was canceled. A huge summer festival in England, Glastonbury, was also cancelled, with promoters from France's Hellfest "pessimistic" that the event could happen this year.
The issue is getting the right amount of insurance. Marc Geiger is the co-founder of Lollapalooza and the former global head of music at talent agency William Morris Entertainment, one of the largest global talent agencies in the world, said last year on The Bob Lefsetz Podcast that there are "probably 20" roadblocks preventing live music from returning nationally. Besides the obvious of the virus, spacing and density, he points out that a huge hurdle will be insurance and libality. “With [COVID], there’s infinite liability,” adding that it will add incredible risk for promoters to put on shows, and even finding a willing insurer. Currently, no insurance company offers COVID insurance. Geiger notes that some of the larger promoters can likely self-insure, but for independent promoters, they will have to wait longer." He predicted shows wouldn't return until 2022.
Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci said in an interview earlier this month that he believed vaccines in the U.S. may provide enough herd immunity to allow live music to resume this fall.
"If everything goes right, this is will occur some time in the fall of 2021," Fauci said, "so that by the time we get to the early to mid-fall, you can have people feeling safe performing onstage as well as people in the audience."
