For the first time in two decades, Louisville, Kentucky’s annual Forecast Festival will be taking a pause in 2023, following unprecedented levels of stress and difficulties experienced by the live music industry as a whole that caused many other artists like Animal Collective and Santigold to cancel tours and Firefly Festival to take 2023 off as well(Brooklyn Vegan). Grammy award-winning artist Lorde further reflected on the live music industry’s current struggles: Basically, for artists, promoters and crews, things are at an almost unprecedented level of difficulty. It’s a storm of factors.”
In a tweet announcing the festival’s postponement, the persons in charge of cultivating and developing Forecastle Festival released a statement in which they morosely reported that “It’s incredible to see what this festival has become and how the Louisville community has grown around it over the past 20 years,” a statement from the fest reads. “There are some things that we want to work on and improve for the future, so we’re going to take some time to strategize and determine the best path forward for the festival. We are grateful for your loyalty and support over the years and will come back to you with updates. We hope to share more good times in the future.”
The cancellation of Louisville’s longest-ever outdoor music festival came abruptly, only being hosted in 2022 following a two-year hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2022 event “celebrated Forecastle’s 20th anniversary with multiple stages and a spectacular lineup of artists including Grammy-winning rapper Tyler, The Creator, psychedelic rock powerhouse Tame Impala, Grammy-nominated Louisville native Jack Harlow plus Rufus Du Sol, Phoebe Bridgers, Porter Robinson, Clairo, 6lack, Black Pumas, Still Woozy, Lane 8, Alison Wonderland, Quinn XCII, Oliver Tree, Earl Sweatshirt, 100 Gecs and more.” The expected Forecastle Festival 2023 dates were May 26 – 28. With such an amazing lineup to follow, it is no surprise that many fans were largely disappointed upon hearing of the festival’s temporary disbandment and inadvertently berated the marketing team while making their disapproval of the festival’s inherent decline known as they advocated for better lineups, cheaper tickets and better, less expensive food/beverage options. A major complaint many fans had of the previous 2022 festival was the misalignment of their festival’s target demographic and those who are actually capable of spending an amount of money that would help the festival reap a profit.
Dalton( @shootingwith) said, “Lots of young faces in there that don’t spend money. This year’s festival was aimed at the high school and college demographic…Here’s a thought, when you focus the lineup to attract high school and young college kids that don’t spend money, that’s a problem. Make it a festival that adults can enjoy, the entire lineup shouldn’t be EDM and Rap. I love both genres but some diversity is necessary.”
Prior to this current delay, the Forecastle Festival had postponed their festivities in 2021 as well, delaying the performances until 2022. When explaining their reasoning, the marketing team gave a similar response: “Feedback from our loyal fans is incredibly important to us, and we are taking this time to make improvements across the board to make Forecastle 2022 an even more incredible experience.”
However, the 2022 Forecastle Festival bragged an amazing lineup, making the delay a worthy endeavor, featuring artists such as Phoebe Bridgers, Tame Impala and Tyler, the Creator.
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