COVID-19 Cases, Poor Organization Leads to Festival Cancellations and Concert Goers Stranded South of the Border

This is not a situation anyone wants. The question is, is anyone at fault?

With the announcement of the cancellations of various festivals and gigs—like the Dead and Company’s Playing in the Sand Festival in Mexico—due to rising COVID-19 cases (thanks to the Omicron variant), many concert and festival goers who arrived at their planned destinations early ahead of the festivities are now stranded.

A number of outlets have reported that many are expressing anger at the way these cancellations have been taking place. For instance, fans and attendees were made aware of the Playing in the Sand festival cancellation a day before it was to kick off this weekend.

“The show should’ve been canceled days ago. I’m not surprised they canceled, just that they did it so late,” one ticket holder, who is currently in Cancun, told Rolling Stone.

Other festivals south of the border, featuring artists like Dave Matthews and Wilco, are also experiencing issues. Some fans, including a Wilco concert goer identified as Mitch Timbanard, hoped to land a positive COVID-19 test so that they could presumably get a refund for the SkyBlueSky festival slated for January in Cancun, which also features Kurt Vile, Thundercat, Spoon, and a number of other big-name bands.

While it may be understandable to most to have the festivals cancelled (or, at best, postponed), there is rising frustration from fans due to the manner in which the shows were cancelled. Over the past week, or so, as cases rose, dribs and drabs of information trickled in from unverified sites, questions abounded, no word was sent until, for many, the last minute.

For Dead and Company, the choice was made the day before the festival as news circulated that positive COVID-19 numbers amongst the staff were rising. Then when Dead and Company’s co-frontman, guitarist John Mayer, contacted the virus, there was even more speculation that the fest would be cancelled—but no official word came until right before it was to start.

For others, there are questions about whether concertgoers should have even waited this long to make their decisions, or should have assumed the worst and guessed that the festivals would be messy, or worse, shut down.

What happens next, is anyone’s guess. That also seems to be the truth for the state of the world for the foreseeable future.

“With much sadness and after great consideration of every possible scenario, the @PlaytheSand shows in Riviera Cancun on January 7-10 and January 13-16 have now been canceled by @CID_Presents due to picking COVID-19 cases…” Dead & Company shared in an Instagram post.

Photo by C Flanigan/FilmMagic