Electric Forest festival officially canceled for second year in a row

With vaccination efforts underway, we were hopeful for the return of the summer music festival season, but more and more festivals are pulling the plug as the pandemic continues.

The latest major player to officially cancel its 2021 dates is Electric Forest, the jam band and electronic music festival held in Rothbury. Organizers made the announcement on Friday.

"After a tumultuous year full of challenges, HQ has eagerly anticipated and worked towards our collective return to Electric Forest," a statement posted to the Electric Forest website reads. "However, as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have continued, it has become clear that we are not going to be able to gather in 2021 and that postponing to 2022 is our only course of action."

The statement continues, "While we all miss each other tremendously and can’t wait to connect again, the safety of the Forest Family and the community that hosts us remains of utmost importance. This must be kept front of mind, along with the meticulous planning and coordination required to coordinate and produce our time together each summer in Rothbury. We must balance our optimism with realism – and we must respect the process in place, the efforts underway, and the sacrifices we’ve all made over the last year in an effort to keep each other safe."

The festival was to celebrate its 10-year anniversary last year, but those dates were canceled. Like last year, organizers encourage fans to keep their wristbands for the next year, but they can also submit a request for a refund. Fans can also sell their wristbands on the festival's ticket exchange website.

Organizers say they will start contacting ticketholders via email in the coming days.

No dates for 2022 have been set yet.

"We are eternally thankful to the entire Forest Family for the patience, planning, and determination shown over the last year," the statement continues. "Having to postpone again is a special kind of heartache, and one which will only be healed when we are together again in 2022."

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