With festival season fast approaching and vaccination roll-outs getting underway, organizers and audiences alike are asking the big question: do we or don’t we?

This week, a handful of festivals have made announcements about their intentions for their summer events (some with all the optimism of mice and men) but, given the variety of those announcements, it is obvious that festival season in Atlantic Canada has organizers divided.

With the announcement today from Premier Iain Rankin that Nova Scotia will be putting restrictions on non-essential travel in and out of the province for people from outside Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, the fate of even more festivals will be brought into question in the near future. While some Atlantic Canadian music festivals can be expected to pull together lineups from within their own provinces, larger festivals and regional festivals like the East Coast Music Awards will be facing another challenging year.

Prince Edward Island’s annual massive celebration of country music, Cavendish Beach Music Festival, was one of the festivals to announce they won’t be going ahead with their regularly scheduled event this, but haven’t ruled out other possibilities.

“After considering all possible options for this year’s festival, in accordance with public health officials, the Province of Prince Edward Island and the uncertainty surrounding border closures, we are saddened to share that the Cavendish Beach Music Festival presented by Bell will be cancelled for July 9th-11th, 2021. We want to thank our fans for their patience, loyalty, and trust as we operate in these challenging times,” said Jeff Squires, President of Whitecap Entertainment, the company responsible for producing CBMF each year.

“As much as we had hoped to bring the full CBMF experience to Cavendish this summer, we are working on a modified event for later in the summer when we hope to welcome fans to the beach for a fun and safe event.”

Last year, CBMF managed to maintain their status as an annual event by hosting a drive-in concert series, featuring a roster of artists from Edward Prince Island.

In Wolfville, Nova Scotia, the board of the Deep Roots Music Festival has also announced that their annual festival, held as late as September, won’t be happening in 2021. Similar to Cavendish Beach Music Festival, they’ve also opted for a more relaxed Summer Concert Series.

“Although the festival is the largest event hosted by the Deep Roots Music Cooperative, it is not the only one. We will continue to follow our mandate and present music in ways that are possible now. Once again Deep Roots will be partnering with the Town of Wolfville to present the Wolfville Summer Concert Series, and we already have a tentative winter 2022 date for the rescheduled Lloyd Spiegel concert,” says Deep Roots Music Festival board member Peter Mowat.

“As well, Cooperative members will work on some new projects. We are saddened that we will once again be missing the wonderful in-person contact that our festival has provided for sixteen years, but we are hopeful that it will return in 2022.”

The Deep Roots Summer Concert Series is currently planning to host performances each Sunday afternoon throughout the summer at Wolfville’s Waterfront Park, beginning in June.

In New Brunswick, both Future and Paddlefest plan to go ahead with their festivals in some form. Future Forest, normally held in the distant month of August, is anticipating clear instructions and an approved operational plan from the powers that be. Paddlefest, however, usually marks the unofficial kick-off to the province’s festival season in May and has already begun to announce performing acts.

So far, Paddlefest has announced a show for Saturday, May 22, featuring Chickahominy Mountain Band and Jerry-Faye at The Red Herring Pub in Saint Andrews, New Brunswick.

“Paddlefest will be cautiously moving ahead on a significantly scaled-back level,” says Paddelfest Festival Director Luke MacDonald.

MacDonald says that the festival will focus on “small shows in small venues.” Rather than breaking out the main stage, Paddlefest is instead opting for shows at The Red Herring Pub, Honeybeans Cafe, Kingsbre Garden and the Huntsman Marine Science Centre, along with some socially distant outdoor events, including their annual Paddlefest Artist Market.

“When looking at options for this year, we wanted to be able to host an in-person event, even if it meant it would be extremely small,” says MacDonald.

“We are fortunate that we can pivot our event somewhat to meet current regulations. We applaud all festivals moving forward with a focus on virtual components or hybrid events. We are looking to include a virtual component as well, but for Paddlefest we felt doing as much live as possible was important.

“Better small than nothing at all!”