Canadian River Music Festival Canceled For 2021, Plans For 2022

When it comes to music festivals in the panhandle, the Canadian River Music Fest is one of my top picks. Their lineups are always choice, and it's usually a good time.

Unfortunately, they're having to cancel the fest for this year. They're looking ahead to 2022.

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The announcement came around the same time that Governor Abbott said he was opening everything up 100 percent and doing away with the mask mandate. It highlighted the issues that go into planning this type of event, even when there isn't a global pandemic to think about.

They said the decision was actually made weeks ago. You can see it below.

If they had decided to go ahead and have the event, they would have weeks to put together a festival that takes months and months of planning. I don't know if you've ever helped put something like this on, but from experience I can tell you that a handful of weeks isn't enough time.

You have to secure staging, lighting, sound, and vendors. People will want to eat. People will need something to drink. Then you have to book artists to perform. Getting the artist you want with a couple of weeks notice is next to impossible most of the time.

So instead of putting this festival on, and it not being something that lives up to the standard set by previous festivals, they're focusing on 2022.

You can't be mad about that.

This gives organizers plenty of time to figure out how they're going to put the festival on, work on the lineup, and make sure that the "return" of the Canadian River Music Fest is the kind of party it deserves to be.