Chesapeake Bay Events announced that the Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival will be not be held in 2019, but will return in 2020.
Don Hooker, promoter, said “A variety of factors were involved in this decision. Primarily, we felt that we need to take a year off to evaluate the changing conditions in the outdoor concert world”.
In recent years there has been a steady increase in the cost of talent and production while at the same time the festival has strived to maintain an affordable ticket price.
There is a price demand curve which states that as we raise prices, demand for tickets will drop, but with the cost of talent on the rise, we must either raise ticket prices or lower our expenses by being more selective in the artists that we book. Other factors include: a decrease in the number of concert goers, an increase in the number of large concerts that are blocking bands from playing within a given radius and a change in weather patterns causing an increase in rainfall over the past few years.
“Our fans our extremely loyal and despite these changes, we have tried to respond in kind; going on with the show, no matter what. Hopefully, they will understand why we needed to step back and re-think our strategy”, says Hooker.
Since our contribution to Special Love and We Care and Friends will be sorely missed without the CBBF contribution, we ask that our patrons make a donation of any amount to either one or both of these two worthwhile causes. You can learn more about these organizations or make donations by visiting the charities’ websites at: www.speciallove.org and www.wecareandfriends.org.
“We will miss our CBBF family in 2019, but hopefully we will see everyone in May 2020”, says Hooker.
