Sled Island Music & Arts Festival 2020 is officially cancelled

Organizers of Sled Island Music & Arts Festival just announced the event will be cancelled this year.

The 2020 installment of the popular local fest was slated to go down between June 24 and 28.

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The announcement elaborated on the decision, citing the coronavirus pandemic as the reason for the cancellation.

The Sled Island team stated that it will be issuing refunds to all pass and ticket holders who request them, in addition to “contacting everyone shortly with details on how to proceed.”

Organizers also ask for ticket holders to consider “transferring their passes to the 2021 festival or donating the cost of your pass or individual ticket(s) to Sled Island in exchange for a charitable tax receipt,” if their situations allow.

Here’s the full statement:

It is with a heavy heart that we are announcing the cancellation of the 2020 Sled Island Music & Arts Festival, scheduled to take place June 24-28. This decision was based on a number of considerations including travel restrictions issued by several countries where some of our scheduled artists are from, travel restrictions announced by the Government of Canada, the announcement by City of Calgary on April 3rd, 2020 that “all festivals and events in Calgary with an audience of 50 people or more, must be canceled or postponed” as well as the order from Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health prohibiting the gathering of persons in excess of 15 people in a group. As a result of these unfortunate developments, the scheduled events can no longer take place and our wonderful artists are unable to perform.

While this news obviously comes as a huge disappointment, we would like to acknowledge and applaud that the City is taking this necessary step to contain the spread of COVID-19 and alleviate the pressure on our health care system to best care for those affected by it.

We also understand that this doesn’t just affect our organization, but countless others in the city, and would like to extend our condolences to those organizations that are likewise struggling with today’s news. Perhaps most devastating to us is knowing the impact that these cancellations will have on our beloved community: the venues, artists, crews and partners who have all already been hit so hard by this crisis. We are committed to working hard for this community’s recovery, leveraging our energy, networks and resources to ensure that it returns stronger than ever.

Unfortunately, the scope and nature of our festival make it impossible for us to simply postpone the event until later in the year (to learn more, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions below). However, we have every intention of returning in June 2021 and are committed to supporting our community to the best of our abilities in the meantime.

We will be issuing refunds to all pass and ticket holders requesting them and will be contacting everyone shortly with details on how to proceed. Alternatively, to those whose personal situation allows, we humbly ask that you consider transferring your pass to the 2021 festival or donating the cost of your pass or individual ticket(s) to Sled Island in exchange for a charitable tax receipt. Keeping the festival alive is a precarious endeavour under the best of circumstances, and we expect the fallout of the pandemic to affect our revenue significantly in the year to come.

Stay safe, stay home, stay hopeful, friends.

The Sled Island Team