Shambhala Music Festival Cancelled With No Refunds Issued

The electronic Canadian music festival Shambhala will no longer go on as planned this year.

The festival, slated to take place from July 24 to 27 at the Salmo River Ranch in British Columbia, will be “postponed” until 2021, festival organizers announced this week. Organizers noted that they are sorry for the inconvenience, but “we give our full support and recognition to Dr. Bonnie Henry and her colleagues for the difficult decision they had to make.”

“We do no have enough herd immunity to protect everybody and allow that type of event to happen,” Henry said during a press conference earlier this week. “Large parades, large mass gatherings where we all come together — those will not be happening this summer.”

This year’s festival was set to feature performances from Rezz, Tycho, Richie Hawtin, deadmau5’s alto-ego Testpilot, and more, with an audience of around 12,000. Organizers revealed that all sales are final, so they are unable to process refunds, including lodging packages. However, ticketholders will be able to redeem their tickets and packages during one of the three upcoming festivals.

“All sales are final so we are unable to process a refund,” the FAQ section of the festival’s website reads. “In saying that, we hope that our 3-year hold policy will accommodate our guests and ensure that they are able to get the value out of their ticket.”

The refund policy is in place since Shambhala is a family-run event. The festival has never accepted corporate sponsorships, which means that organizers take on all the operating costs themselves. Unlike other festivals, Shambhala said this policy makes “refunding tickets impossible for us.”

Shambhala follows the list of hundreds of festivals cancelled across the country. See our full, updating list of festivals postponed or cancelled due to coronavirus here.