Photo: Bear Creek Folk Festival

By Shaun Penner

Folk Festival Postponed

Bear Creek Folk Festival postponed to 2021 due to COVID-19

Apr 21, 2020 | 11:37 AM

The 2020 Bear Creek Folk Festival has officially been postponed until August of 2021.

The organizing committee made the announcement on their Facebook page Tuesday morning.

“While we are deeply saddened to have to do this, we cannot in good conscience pursue a large-scale international event like ours this summer,” reads the announcement. “Our festival brings together thousands of visitors from around Canada and beyond, and health concerns surrounding COVID-19 create too great of a risk.”

The committee further goes on to say that they plan to hold the festival from August 13-15, 2021.

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Sarah Card, the producer of the Bear Creek Folk Fest, says before they postponed the event, they reached out to all the performers to inform them of the decision. She says it’s going to take some time to reschedule the musicians and artists, but remains optimistic that next year’s event will still have a full lineup.

“We have the time, and we’re working on it. At this point we can’t guarantee who’s coming, we’ve definitely extended invitations to all the artists we had announced. We’re hoping on the best on those fronts, but it will take some time for us to get this fully sorted out, and have a clear idea of exactly what the 2021 festival will look like.”

She adds they have over a year to plan next year’s festival, and that it will be a strong event.

If you have already purchased tickets for this year’s event, they will be carried over for 2021. You can also request a full refund by August 1, 2020, or you can request to donate all or some of the purchase price to the Bear Creek Folk Festival Society.

“This is not an easy time for anyone, including those of us in the music industry. Donating your ticket fee is an excellent way to help the festival prepare for 2021 and support the artists and arts community.”

Earlier this month, Grande Prairie City Council voted in favour of allocating $75,000 for this year’s festival. Mayor Bill Given told EverythingGP during a Town Hall event on April 8 that funding would be carried over should the festival be postponed, and that the organizing committee would not be requesting any additional funds in 2021. Card adds this is actually a win-win situation, as the Bear Creek Folk Festival Society will be able to roll-over the money from this year, and next year a different organization will be able to apply for the grant.