NASHVILLE, TN (CelebrityAccess) — The Country Music Association on Tuesday announced that for the second year in a row, the annual CMA Fest music festival has been canceled.
“After thoughtful deliberation, we are saddened to share that CMA Fest will not take place in 2021. We know our fans near and far have hoped that the festival could safely return this summer, and while we are encouraged to see COVID-19 vaccines becoming more widely available, we still face several challenges that prevent us from bringing our fans around the world the CMA Fest experience they have come to expect,” the CMA said in a press statement on Tuesday.
The four-day festival, which takes place at multiple locations in downtown Nashville, was scheduled for June 10 – June 13th.
The CMA highlighted the sprawling footprint of the music festival as one of the insurmountable challenges they faced in organizing the event in the waning days of the coronavirus pandemic.
Unlike many other music festivals that take place from a single location, CMA Fest has a rather large footprint that spans across the entire downtown Nashville area, including Nissan Stadium, Ascend Amphitheater and Music City Center. We know that you may be wondering why we cannot reschedule our event to take place later in 2021, however, to produce CMA Fest at the scale we normally do requires a significant amount of advance planning and production. Given the length of our production window, it is simply impossible to find an available window later this summer or into the fall.
The CMA also pointed to capacity limits for large scale public events that are still in place as cities and states work to prevent a fourth outbreak of COVID-19.
“Additional challenges we face this year are capacity restrictions, not only with brick-and-mortar venues but at many of our outdoor locations. We are incredibly grateful that the majority of you who purchased four-day passes for CMA Fest 2020 have made the decision to hold onto your seats for the nightly concerts at Nissan Stadium. The last thing we want to do is make a decision that leaves any of our loyal attendees in the dark due to capacity restraints.”
Despite the cancellation, the CMA said planning is already underway for a return of CMA Fest in 2022, with the event scheduled for June 9-12, 2022.
Fans who have already purchased passes, or rolled passes over from 2020, can choose to do so again, or they can request a full refund. Those who purchased passes through Ticketmaster or the CMA Fest Box Office will receive an email in the next 24-48 hours with further information about retaining passes or requesting a full refund, the CMA said.
