This has been a rough week for New England summer time festival lovers. In the span of just a few short days, Newport Folk, Green River Festival and Otis Mountain Get Down has all made announcements about their cancellation.
The messages may differ slightly. The size of the three above mentioned fests may also differ in size, but the message is clear. Be it groups of a few hundred or a few thousand, the intelligent and responsible decision to make is to put off the events for this year and come back twice as strong in 2021.
All that said, festivals typically mark a very important time for artists. In general, they come with a higher pay opportunity for artists, between the ability for well sponsored festivals to cut a nicer check to the fact that so many fans, both new and old, are in there in large groups means that merch sale opportunities are aplenty. It is a time to continue to support artists and events like festivals in any way that we can.
Newport, for example, in their messaging from Jay Sweet, is offering ticket holders the opportunity to use their ticket cost (all of or a portion of) to make a tax-deductible donation to their ongoing, year round music education initiatives and grants for artists currently in need.
Otis also has a donate button on their announcement page.
While Green River didn’t mention donations in their cancellation announcements, the festival does have online store with festival merch (including a flask…and if you are a drinker, lets face it, you are probably drinking a bit more these days).
Be well and be good to each other folks. Give if you can and if you can’t a note to your favorite artist or a person can go a long way. Let people know you are thinking of them.