Music event Summerfest is moved to September per a statement posted online earlier today, March 23.
In a press release by Don Smiley on the event's official Twitter page, he opens that "The music industry has been profoundly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and most live events scheduled for early summer have been canceled".
The president & CEO of the Milwaukee World Festival (MWF) continues, "In the interest of safety and in cooperation with artists, Summerfest 2020 will move to new dates: September 3-5, 10-12 and 17-19, 2020." Smiley explains that the new dates have the "best possible option to deliver the Summerfest experience our fans and sponsors have grown to love."
He assures fans that they are "doing everything possible to continue a tradition which spans five decades." Summerfest is a music festival held annually in Milwaukee, Wisconsin starting 1968.
The press release also confirms that all tickets purchased for the original June schedule will still be honored for the new September dates.
Smiley then says, based on the local direction from Wisconsin governor Tony Evers, that their offices are closed but can still receive inquiries through their email.
"I hope you can take some time to listen to your favorite artists and enjoy the magic of music. Please take care of yourself and one another," the Twitter announcement adds.
Milwaukee's annual music fest boasts of attracting close to a million attendees each year, billing the event as "The World's Largest Music Festival". This claim was certified in 1999 by the Guinness World Records.
The event in the 75-acre park usually lasts over 11 days, in 12 different stages, totaling to more than a thousand performances. Over its 50-year run, it has been headlined by famous local and international acts from almost every genre. The list of its superstar performers includes The Beatles' Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Metallica, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, Aerosmith, Lady Gaga, and Linkin Park, among others.
Aside from multi-genre performances, Summerfest has also started including comedy acts since its 1975 incarnation. Stand-up comics Henry Youngman, David Brenner, and even Jay Leno and John Stewart have had their sets over the years. Lewis Black, famous for his "Lewis Black's Root of All Evil" series and "Back and Black" segment on the "The Daily Show," has been a mainstay of the event, performing almost every year since his Summerfest debut in 1991.
Summerfest joins the growing list of canceled events due to mounting coronavirus concerns. A few days ago, the prestigious Cannes Film Festival also announced that they would be postponing their event to a later date. Another music festival, Insomniac's Beyond Wonderland, a multi-stage EDM music gathering, opted to push through with an online live stream dubbed "Virtual Rave-a-thon."
Canceled tours and concerts now include Metallica and Iron Maiden's respective tours, Zac Brown Band's "The Owl Tour", Alicia Keys' "More Myself" book tour and her upcoming "Alicia" album, as well as the first leg of Tool's North American tour.
As of this writing, there have been more than 378,000 confirmed cases, including more than 16,505 deaths across 168 counties, according to the monitoring done by Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Wisconsin alone has posted a total of 425 confirmed positive cases several hours ago.
