As cities across the country remain hopeful for the return of large in-person events starting at the end of the summer, major music festivals have started rolling out their 2021 lineups. But one festival in particular has decided to not return this calendar year. New Orleans’ Voodoo Festival announced that they are canceling their 2021 event, but plan to make an official return in 2022.
Sharing the news on social media, Voodoo festival organizers wrote, “Voodoo Music + Arts Experience will take a pause in 2021 and will return to to City Park for an epic Halloween experience in 2022. As our city reopens with an abundance of events to reconnect with, we look forward to holding our reunion when we can fully embrace the voodoo experience.”
See you in 2022.
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— Voodoo Experience (@VoodooNola) June 10, 2021
Voodoo Festival did not state their reason for deciding to cancel this year’s event. In a statement to local news site Nola, the mayor’s spokesperson Beau Tidwell said the decision was not made by the city. “There was no communication from the city to Voodoo Fest organizers that they could not proceed,” Tidwell said.
News of the cancellation arrives just days after New Orleans festival Buku unveiled their lineup, which is slated to take place the week before Halloween weekend. The lineup boasts some of the biggest names in music, like Megan Thee Stallion, Playboi Carti, and Machine Gun Kelly. Because festivals typically issue a radius clause, which bars an artist from performing elsewhere for a number of days both before and after their festival time slot, it’s possible that Voodoo had trouble finding musicians who were able to perform their event.
Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.