Earlier this week, Kansas City’s state and county officials gave Dancefestopia the green light to go on as planned! This lineup is massive, bringing huge headliners like Griz, Zeds Dead and Rezz to Emerald City on September 10th-13th.
Few festivals have received the go ahead amidst our worldwide coronavirus pandemic, which brings to question, what precautions are Dancefestopia’s organizers taking to ensure a safe return?
Moreover, what guidelines could PNW festivals look for as we safely reignite our industry? Before planning your own full send to Emerald City, we’d like to share the PNW festivals still holding onto their own hopeful 2020 return!
While inviting nearly 50,000 attendees to Emerald City brings the usual struggles, Dancefestopia faces their biggest challenge yet. Alongside their confirmation announcement festival organizers stated that they “will continue to work with health and government officials to establish a safe DFT 2020.”
With an acknowledgement that “the situation could change,” Dancefestopia’s organizers sound committed to ensuring the party continues safely. In the meantime festival organizers have yet to reveal Dancefestopia’s precaution-filled setup. When asked, Dancefestopia responded that more information on their new safety guidelines will be released in the upcoming weeks.
If Dancefestopia goes off without a hitch, festival organizers all over the world will aspire to follow suit. However, the festivals we return to may look entirely different based on having our health in mind. In a USA Today article covering “America’s first pandemic concert” set restrictions sounded very doable.
First, the venue allowed only 20% of their usual capacity and set up hand sanitizer stations throughout. Further precautions included required masks, temperature checks upon arrival, and even sectioned seating. Having the ability to adapt has always been a strong suit in the EDM community, which means moving forward will require some changes.
Currently, very few festivals in the PNW are still holding strong onto 2020 dates, and hopefully they’re planning their own safety guidelines to ensure a seamless return. Coming up first August 28th-30th will be Excision’s third edition of Bass Canyon.
Soon after comes the Imagine Music & Arts Festival September 10th-13th, hosting their seventh year in a brand new location. Lastly comes spooky season EDC Las Vegas, refusing to relinquish their 2020 return and instead pushing dates back to October 2nd-4th. While this PNW festival season may go down in infamy, the music will thankfully continue.
Do you think the PNW festival season will end on a high note? Let us know on Facebook and Twitter!
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