The largest music festival in the Kootenays, and arguably Western Canada, is not immune to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shambhala, along with countless other summertime events, will have to wait until 2021 before it can open its gates to party-goers from across the world.
“It is with the heaviest of hearts that we must announce the 23rd Annual Shambhala Music Festival, originally scheduled for July 2020, will be postponed to July 2021. The festival will be held at the same location it has called home since 1998: the Salmo River Ranch. We are truly sorry for any inconvenience our postponement may have caused, and we give our full support and recognition to Dr. Bonnie Henry and her colleagues for the difficult decision they had to make.” Shambhala announced on their website.
As for refunds, ticket holders will not be getting their money back.
“Your ticket will be valid for a future date across the following three-years (2021, 2022 or 2023). Our Customer Service team will be reaching out to 2020 guests over the coming weeks to transfer your tickets and/or lodging to a future year. We would like to thank you for your patience as we roll out this process.”
Not everyone will be able to attend in the next few years so people will have an opportunity to sell their tickets and lodging packages online via the following link: portal.shambhalamusicfestival.com.
As for setting the date later in the year rather than postponing it to 2021, Shambhala issued the following statement:
“The reality is, there isn’t a clear timeline for when travel and even small gatherings will be allowed. We simply do not feel confident choosing a new date for 2020 at this time. In addition, our community and guests have many concerns surrounding the current COVID-19 pandemic and its aftershocks, which lead us to believe they would not attend our festival in the fall even if it were deemed safe. If we were to host a festival in the fall, it would give very little lead-up time for the next festival in the summer. The site needs significant preparations each year to be turned into proper festival grounds. We have no desire to scale back our festival offerings that we have been striving to improve year after year.”
*** Story by Jensen Shields ***
