Music Tastes Good Will Not Return In 2019 According To Organizers

After three years of shows, the annual Music Tastes Good Music Festival in Long Beach, California will not take place this year according to the festival’s organizers. They will instead use this time to rethink the company’s strategy and to move ahead with plans for the future.

Long Beach resident, musician and concert promoter Josh Fischel organized the first event back in 2016, as a way to give back to his beloved community. Unfortunately, one week prior to the festival, which was headlined by the Specials, Iron & Wine, Sylvan Esso and Squeeze, Fischel passed away from a long time illness.

Despite his death, the community banded together to host the event, and continued with two more iterations that took place in Long Beach’s Marina Green Park. Last year’s festival featured performances from New Order, James Blake, Janelle Monae, Santigold and the Church.

“Music Tastes Good visionary and founder, Josh Fischel, had two tattoos running lengthwise down each of his arms: ”CULTIVATE” and “ADAPT.” Since his passing after year one, it has been our honor, as the MTG team, to cultivate his vision. We now find ourselves at a place where we must adapt,” the organizers stated on the festival’s website.” In order to do so effectively, we will be taking a pause for the 2019 festival with hopes to return in 2020. In the meantime we will focus on producing some more intimate events for our fellow food and music lovers.”

The festival’s executive producer John Molina explained in an interview with the Long Beach Post that a heavily impacted festival circuit, including the numerous music festivals that take place at the Queen Mary, helped influence this hiatus. Despite this year’s absence from the festival circuit, he implied that it may not last for an extended time because “you can’t go dark too long, or else everyone forgets about you.”

Although it is unknown when the festival will return, the organizers concluded their statement with this message of support:

“It is with deep gratitude and affection that we thank our friends, attendees and partners for their support over the years. Cheers to all the sounds, sights and tastes we’ve shared, and cheers to all that is to come.”