Photo by Matt Hoffman
Above: Wonderfront light-up sign at the Embarcadero in downtown San Diego on Nov. 22, 2019.
The Wonderfront Music & Arts Festival, slated to bring a “star-studded” lineup of musical acts this fall to the San Diego Bay waterfront, has been canceled due to a surge of COVID-19 cases in California and across the nation, organizers announced Thursday.
According to a joint statement from Wonderlust Events, LLC and the Port of San Diego, this year’s event was canceled after “weeks of discussions and research” with county, state and national public health officials regarding this fall’s expected COVID-19 case numbers.
“The continued safety of the community had to be front and center in our decision making,” Michael G. Brown, Port of San Diego’s vice president of marketing and communications, said. “We pushed as long as we could, working with the Wonderfront Festival team to see if case trends might look more positive or new information would give us the comfort level needed to move forward. But at the end of the day, the situation has not improved. Knowing that people book advance travel to attend, and production crews have months of logistical planning to do, a final decision needed to be made.”
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The festival is now anticipated to take place Nov. 18-20, 2022. Organizers said more information would be released “in the upcoming weeks” regarding next year’s festival.
This year’s cancellation marks the second time the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the festival’s postponement. The inaugural festival in 2019 featured more than 125 artists over three days, and drew more than 57,000 people.
“This announcement, though challenging, is met with understanding and appreciation for the Port of San Diego for providing us with such a spectacular venue for our festival,” said Paul Thornton, Managing Partner of Wonderlust Events, LLC. “We love our lineup, including major headliners who confirmed this year, and the Wonderfront team has been tirelessly working on the festival’s second year. We have some new fan experiences we were so excited to roll out. Our team completely understands the Port of San Diego’s decision, as the safety of the Wonderfront community must come first.
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“Once again, we will pivot and work with our artists to push this lineup to our new 2022 dates. We’re hoping to finalize the new dates so we can announce them and put tickets on-sale this Fall,” Thornton said. “We are looking forward to building an even better experience and celebrating the world getting back together at Wonderfront 2022.”
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