The fall Wonderfront Music & Arts Festival has been postponed due to a surge of COVID-19 cases in California and across the nation, organizers announced Thursday.
According to a joint statement from Wonderlust Events, LLC and the Port of San Diego, this year’s event, set for Nov. 19-21, was put off after “weeks of discussions and research” with county, state and national public health officials
The fears focused on projections of this fall’s COVID-19 case numbers. The event had been slated to bring a “star-studded” lineup of musical acts near San Diego Bay.
“The continued safety of the community had to be front and center in our decision making,” said Michael G. Brown, the port’s vice president of marketing and communications. “We pushed as long as we could working with the Wonderfront Festival team to see if case trends might look more positive or new information would give us the comfort level needed to move forward. But at the end of the day, the situation has not improved.”
The decision had to be made, Brown said, in advance of fans making travel plans, and to prevent unnecessary planning by production crews.
The festival is now projected to take place Nov. 18-20, 2022. Organizers said more information would be released “in the upcoming weeks” regarding next year’s festival, including ticket sales.
This year’s postponed marks the second straight year the pandemic has put the festival on hold.
The inaugural festival in 2019 featured more than 125 artists over three days, and drew more than 57,000 people.
Paul Thornton, managing partner of Wonderlust Events, LLC., called the decision “challenging,” given the major headliners who confirmed for this year, and new fan experiences that had been planned.
“Our team completely understands the Port of San Diego’s decision, as the safety of the Wonderfront community must come first,” Thornton said. “Once again, we will pivot and work with our artists to push this lineup to our new 2022 dates.”
He added that the event team looks forward to “celebrating the world getting back together at Wonderfront 2022.”
– City News Service
