COVID-19 has caused another bluegrass casualty. Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival in New York has announced that they will miss their 2021 event, just as they were forced to do in 2020.
This year’s festival has been postponed again until July 14-17, 2022. The announcement came as something of a surprise to eager festival goers, in the wake of so much hopeful news on the COVID front.
But the festival staff announced over the weekend that there was simply too much uncertainty remaining for them to go ahead this year.
Last year at this time, we felt certain we’d be on the other side of the global pandemic by now, and we had visions of gathering with our musical family in July on the Walsh Farm. With the rollout of vaccines, and states loosening some restrictions, we were hopeful that Grey Fox 2021 could happen in some fashion. Unfortunately, there are too many unanswered questions, restrictions on gatherings, and potential health risks to be able to move forward at this time.
Videos created for the 2020 Spirit of Grey Fox virtual festival are still available on YouTube, with more than 30 hours of live concert footage captured over the years on the Grey Fox stage. All these were provided free of charge online as a fundraiser for the IBMA Trust Fund. $25,000 has been donated to date from those watching the appeals in the Spirit of Grey Fox videos.
Supporters of the festival may also make donations to help them stay afloat after having to miss two years running. You might think that by not holding a festival the organizers avoid the costs of putting on an event, but there are many ongoing expenses to keeping a team in place.
Donations are being accepted online.
