Louisville’s Louder Than Life festival has been cancelled, and while organizers hope to throw an even better event in 2021, they’re asking fans to help them financially by deferring their tickets.
Over the weekend, the rock festival – which was slated to be headlined by Metallica from September 18-20 – cancelled its 2020 edition of the festival, along with Louisville’s Hometown Rising and Bourbon & Beyond. Although the fests aren’t until September, promoter Danny Wimmer Presents noted that “producing three back-to-back events have necessitated that a decision be made sooner rather than later,” and organizers decided to call-off the event due to the advice of health officials.
While organizers said they will be offering full refunds to all ticketholders, DWP took to Twitter on Tuesday to share their internal thoughts regarding financials for the 2021 event. DWP noted that right now, they understand that “these are tough times and know that extra dollars in your pockets right now can go a long way.” However, they don’t know what the future holds.
“We know the COVID-19 nightmare will end. We just don’t know when,” DWP said in a statement. “And more importantly to us, we don’t know what the festival market will look like next year. As we plan for 2021, we cannot take for granted that you will have the same desire or financial means to attend festivals. So many of you have been out of work that it simply may be a matter of personal finances or lack of vacation time.”
At this time, DWP is trying to make assumptions of what the festival demand will look like between 12-18 months from now. They questioned if they should scale down the events to make them more affordable, or plan for 25-50% less attendees next year.
“To help us make these decisions, solely to the extent you are able, we are asking you to defer your Louder Than Life tickets to next year,” DWP said. “Frankly, the more of you that do that, the easier it will be for us to take the financial risk of booking the festival experience to which you have become accustomed.
“We cannot overstress that we understand if you cannot afford to do this. And we are by no means suggesting that if you don’t defer, there won’t be any DWP events next year. We are just trying to determine the scope and scale for 2021 and our own financial ability to take risks next year.”
Ticketholders should have received an email regarding details on how to request a refund or defer their passes to 2021.
“Louder Than Life 2020 was going to be the biggest year yet,” DWP said. “It is our sincere hope that we can bring it back as strong or stronger in 2021.”
While the festival has been completely open and honest about their financial risk for 2021, other festivals haven’t followed suit. Some, like Miami’s Ultra, aren’t giving the option to refund tickets, and rather, are offering options to use the tickets at the next two editions of the festival. Others, including British Columbia’s Shambhala, are not refunding tickets due to financial reasons.
See our full, updating list of festivals postponed or cancelled due to coronavirus here.
