A First Montreal-Area Music Festival Has Cancelled Its 2020 Edition
- Santa Teresa, a Montreal-area music festival, announced Thursday that it is cancelling its 2020 edition.
- It's the first major music festival in the metropolitan area to do so.
- Current travel and gathering restrictions would have made the festival impossible, organizers say.
- Visit MTLBlog for more headlines.
Quebec event organizers are holding their breath in the face of the crisis. Public gatherings are currently banned to counter the spread of the coronavirus, forcing many events to suspend planning and casting doubt on the sustainability of the festival season. As a result, a major Montreal-area music festival has just announced the cancellation of its spring festivities. It's apparently the first to do so.
The Santa Teresa Festival that was scheduled to take place from May 15 to 17 in Sainte-Thérèse on the North Shore.
The announcement of its cancellation was made via social networks on the evening of Thursday, March 26.
Though the provincial ban on gatherings weighed heavily in the decision, organizers made clear that other restrictions would have made the event impossible.
"The measures related to the containment and bans on gatherings, as well as the announced bans on non-residents and international travellers, prevent us from holding the event as planned," said Santa Teresa.
The festival was to bring together several international artists, including Romeo Elvis, Pussy Riot, Lil Tracy, and L'Or du Commun.
The latter would simply not be able to enter the country if the travel ban persisted.
The organizers also indicate that all those holding tickets will be refunded.
They ask not to be contacted at this time and that the return would be automatic, while "the ticketing team is putting a strategy in place to ensure that ticket holders are reimbursed in the coming weeks."
Several Quebec artists were also scheduled to tread the boards of the various stages in Sainte-Thérèse.
Claudia Bouvette, Les Louanges, Alexandra Streliski, Clay & Friends, The Franklin Electric and Bleu Jeans Bleu, to name but a few, had all been programmed for this fourth edition of the young festival.
It's unclear what impact the crisis will have on major summer festivals like Osheaga and the Festival Jazz.
Several international festivals and events, like Coachella and the Tokyo Olympics, have been postponed.
Stay tuned for more news.
This article was originally published in French on Narcity Québec.
