PICTOU COUNTY: As is the case with almost every other large-scale event in Canada, the Stan Rogers Folk Festival will not be taking place this summer.
On April 16, organizers announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this summer’s event, scheduled for July 23-26 in Canso, has been cancelled.
“We’ve been working on it for weeks and gathering information, and ultimately really, it was the only decision we could make in the end,” Stanfest founder and producer, Troy Greencorn told The Reporter.
Stanfest organizers are part of two networks, one of music festivals in Atlantic Canada, and other of similar festivals from across Canada, and Greencorn said, there is unanimity among organizers.
“What we’re going to see clear across Canada is there won’t be any large festivals this summer,” Greencorn pointed out. “It’s just not practical to go from where we are today isolated in our homes, to 3,000 people sitting in a field or in a stadium.”
This announcement follows other major event cancellations in the region, including the Antigonish Highland Games.
Stanfest organizers believe that federal and provincial authorities should mandate that all large summer events be cancelled.
“It would be much easier for us all if public health officials would mandate this action,” Greencorn said. “Our situation is compounded by the camping nature of the festival. We have several thousand attendees who live on-site in campgrounds for the weekend. It will be impossible to meet the public expectation for disinfection and hygiene. Canso is a community of under 1,000 residents and we feel we’d be taking unreasonable risk to invite thousands of visitors into the community, even if the event was permitted to proceed. There are just too many risks and too much uncertainty.”
Stanfest organizers are contemplating different ways of presenting artists to audiences, including on-line.
“We’re looking at our options, we’re looking at what other organizations are doing,” Greencorn noted. “I fully expect that we will come forward in the coming weeks and months with some version of bringing artists to our community. We really had to get this step behind us and turn the page.”
Stanfest organizers have now shifted to planning the 25th anniversary edition in 2021. Greencorn added that next year isn’t guaranteed either, but they remain hopeful.
“We just have to live and hope that this situation will run its course,” he noted. “There’s a lot of research that we’re reading and seeing that says there won’t be large-scale events anywhere in North America until there’s a vaccine in place. We hope that comes this year, so that by next year that certainty will be there.
“There’s kind of two sides to this. Is it legal and can we get approvals to do large events, but will people feel comfortable to come to these events? Right now, we’re all freaked out by going to the grocery store… How do we get from there to a major festival? It’s going to take time, it’s going to take confidence that things have progressed and we’ve passed the peak and flattened the curve, there’s a vaccine in place, there’s medications. There’s a lot that has to happen.”
Organizers invite ticket holders for the 2020 festival to visit: www.stanfest.com for information on refunds, exchanges and donations.