Lightning In a Bottle has confirmed they’re postponing this year’s festival with no plan B at the moment.
On Friday (March 13), Lightning In a Bottle announced that its 2020 event is being postponed due to the coronavirus. The festival was set to take place in Buena Vista Lake, Calif., over Memorial Day weekend, May 20-25. Headliners included Kaytranada, James Blake, Four Tet, Sylvan Esso and more. [Billboard]
Read more here or read the full statement below.
It is with a heavy heart that we must share the news that this year’s Lightning in a Bottle Festival is not able to take place on Memorial Day Weekend at Buena Vista Lake. As the Novel Coronavirus has spread, we have been consulting with officials in Kern County and paying attention to the guidelines put out by state authorities. As you may have heard the State of California is now urging the halting of all mass gatherings over 250 people and we are now in a National Emergency. In addition, we are aware that the significant county resources we depend on to produce a safe event cannot be guaranteed to be available in the coming months for non-essential services. The health and safety of our attendees, our amazing staff, crew, vendors, artists and supporters is priority number one. In light of all this, it has become clear that putting on the festival in May is not currently possible.
These are unprecedented times and no one knows exactly what tomorrow will bring. We’re absolutely heartbroken to not be able to offer the light of LIB during these trying times and the decision to take this extraordinary step has been a very difficult one. We are acutely aware that the ripple effects of this action combined with the massive disruption to the entire events industry will be felt for some time. Our hearts go out to everyone that won’t be able to build stages, sell their handcrafted goods, make amazing art that touches souls, play the music that someone will fall in love to and especially to all the attendees that won’t have a chance to have that Memorial Day festival experience that could change the course of their lives forever. To all of you, we say hang in there. This too will pass.
Beyond losing the Memorial Day date for LIB 2020, we are unfortunately not able to provide further details on LIB’s future status at this time. The situation remains fluid and we are working through various scenarios to determine our options. The Do LaB is a small, family run business and we humbly ask for your patience as we determine our next steps. One thing we do know is that we’ll never stop creating art and magical experiences for the beautiful LIB community.
In the meantime please look after one and other, wash your hands, keep creating art and share some joy with the world. We’ll keep you posted with information as we have it.
