Cowboys Calgary cancels annual music festival for second year in a row

Cowboys Dance Hall has announced the cancellation of their annual music festival for the second year in a row.

The Cowboys team took to Twitter to share the news, saying that after “many lengthy discussions, careful consideration of all possible scenarios, and having exhausted all options and efforts surrounding the safety and feasibility of hosting Cowboys Music Festival 2021,” they have decided to cancel the event.

“This announcement breaks our hearts,” Cowboys continued in the two-part tweet, “and we are as saddened about this as you are.”

@CowboysCalgary/Twitter

After cancelling the music festival in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this is the second time that Cowboys won’t be holding the popular event in its 25-year run.

A Calgary Stampede staple, the Cowboys Music Festival has brought some of the biggest parties and most legendary nights to the city.

“We’ve hosted guests from all over the globe,” said Cowboys on Twitter, “and set the stage for you to create lifelong memories. It is this ‘Cowboys experience’ that you have come to know and love, and we have loved creating it for you.”

The popular dance hall says that they considered all of the details surrounding federal, provincial, City of Calgary, and Alberta Health Services restrictions, in addition to vaccination rates and travel restrictions. Based on this information, Cowboys has come to the conclusion that bringing the “Cowboys experience” to Calgary is not possible this year.

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Cowboys has hope for the future, however, and plans to create an “even more legendary” music festival in 2022. But, for now, they say, “it is important to us to stay the course, stay strong, stay supportive, and be part of the solution in getting us past the finish line for this unprecedented time in all our lives.”

@CowboysCalgary/Twitter

The dance hall has remained fully closed over the past 15 months while respecting public health guidelines, and the tweet states that “as a local Albertan business, this has been a real struggle.”

But the team ended the announcement on a positive note, saying “We have been watching from the sidelines this past year and a half, and we have to say – we are in absolute awe of how everyone has been navigating through this challenging year. We’ve been inspired by all of you and admire the way you have pulled together to support one another.”

“It has been your sense of community and support that has given us hope and inspired us to be patient, wait our turn, and put everything we’ve got into bringing Cowboys Music Festival back – better than ever, when the time is right and when it is safe for everyone.”