Kazoo! Fest 2020 October 15-18th
In a parallel universe, Kazoo! Fest 2020 is kicking off tonight with a warehouse party at Kazoo! HQ. Artists and festival-goers are on their way to Guelph from across Ontario, across Canada, and around the world. Kazoo! organizers and volunteers are scrambling to get venues across town ready for a multi-venue city-wide party. And everyone is making a plan for their Kazoo! Fest weekend, sharing secrets about which shows can’t be missed, spreading rumours about after parties, and getting ready to crack open a Kazoo! Brew and get the weekend started.
Unfortunately, this is not the world we’re living in right now. Instead, we’re at home (or at least everyone who has the privilege to stay home), doing what we can to flatten the curve and look out for the vulnerable people in our communities as a deadly virus spreads around the world.
We were sad to have to postpone our April 2020 festival but it was absolutely clear to us that there was no alternative. We’ve spent the last month, as many people have, trying to wrap our heads around what is unfolding around us and trying to find some sense of normalcy during these crazy times. Our staff and organizing team spent time reflecting and discussing what a music festival means during times like this, and wondering if things would ever be the same. When this global pandemic shut down North America in early March, we were only 1 month away from our final festival, the final swan song for Kazoo! Fest after a 14 year run. We’d spent over 6 months planning this final festival and it was really hard for us to just walk away. We pitched ideas about ways to connect through digital mediums like live streaming and considered the implications of moving to an entirely digital platform for our final festival. Ultimately, for us, these digital approximations of our festival didn’t feel like the right answer. So we decided to set our sights towards the fall and mark some dates on our calendars six months from now.
October 15-18th, 2020, are the dates we’re planning for the final installment of Kazoo! Fest. We’re still in the process of figuring out how it will work but we’re excited to share the good news that our fall lineup will include many of the same artists we’d planned for our spring festival including: Mount Eerie, Cartel Madras, Fat Tony, respectfulchild, Noah23, Sandro Perri, Cots, Bruce Peninsula, Sarah Pagé, and many more that we’ll be announcing soon.
It may be a different world for live music on the other side of this pandemic but we all need something to look forward to right now. We’re optimistic that we will re-emerge from this mess with a renewed sense of appreciation for moments that bring us together.
We’ll be sharing more details about the festival over the coming months but in the meantime, please support musicians, artists, small businesses, laid-off workers, and everyone who has been and will be impacted by this fucked up virus. And please do everything you can to look out for the health and wellbeing of everyone around you. We are going to get through this together and we’re looking forward to seeing you this fall.
With love, the Kazoo! crew
