New Orleans’ BUKU Music + Arts Project have announced that their BUKU Planet B Festival, which was scheduled for October, has been canceled due to concerns over COVID-19. The festival is planning for a full return in March 2022.
A statement from the festival organizers cited the state of Louisiana’s recent surge in COVID-19 cases and a concern for public health and safety for its decision to pull the plug on this fall’s event. It also stated that details on the refund and rollover process will be included in emails to ticket holders. It was also hinted that the line-up for a March 25-26 BUKU festival is in development.
The now-canceled event, which was announced in June, was set to take place in New Orleans on October 22 and 23. It was to include artists such as Megan Thee Stallion, Illenium, Machine Gun Kelly, Playboi Carti, Pooh Shiesty, Kaytranada, EarthGang, Ghostemane, slowthai and more. It was described as a smaller version of the festival that was meant to capture the same atmosphere as the spring event, only with a smaller crowd as a way to bridge the gap until next spring.
The festival’s official statement reads: “As you’ve probably seen, Louisiana is getting rocked by COVID again and it’s causing large events in the state to cancel. We’ve spent the last couple weeks trying to hang on, but don’t see a guaranteed path forward under the current & projected public health conditions. Therefore, in keeping the health & safety of our community as our top priority, we are canceling BUKU: Planet B that was scheduled to take place this October. Ticket holders will receive an email soon with details about the refund & rollover process. The purpose of PLANET B was to ‘set yourself free’ as we celebrate the return of festivals in New Orleans. Simply put, we’re not quite there yet. However, by putting the health of the community first NOW, we believe we are doing the right thing to preserve the FUTURE and ensure that this surge is the last. We also want to say that we support the City’s current guidelines and we fully support those festivals moving forward in other locations around the country. It was just bad timing for us down here, but the City of New Orleans is resilient AF. We will be back in no time and it will be awesome. In the meantime, stay safe, get vaccinated, and we will see you next year. To end on a positive note, the lineup for the next BUKU on March 25-26 2022 is insane so far. Can’t wait.”
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