TORONTO — Canadian Music Week organizers announced today the annual festival and conference’s in-person events, including the Radio Active summit, have been cancelled for 2020. Virtual options are currently being explored, says the news release.
Originally scheduled to take place May 19-23 in Toronto, CMW had been postponed until September 9-11 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, in a statement posted to the festival’s website on Tuesday, CMW president Neill Dixon said the organization was abandoning efforts to present the festival and conference in 2020.
“After extensive consultation with industry partners, it has become apparent that — at this point in the public health emergency — September represented too many unavoidable obstacles. Not least of these would be the participation of international artists and delegates, many of whom might not be free to travel at that point, and some of whom have already declined to attend,” Dixon wrote.
“Even in a best-case fall scenario, wherein the spread of Covid-19 has been mitigated and limited public gatherings allowed, high-attendance events such as concerts, sports and conferences will likely be the last public activities to resume. The fallout is huge, for events like ours and for the entire music industry,” he added.
Although a date for holding the conference in 2021 has not been determined yet, Dixon said all CMW 2020 badges and wristbands will be honoured on the new dates. All concert tickets have either been refunded or are in the process of being refunded, according to his statement.
In the meantime, CMW is “investigating some virtual options for mounting a digital extension of Canadian Music Week, including a series of webinars and conference livestreams,” Dixon wrote. “More information on those initiatives will follow.”
No information was provided about how CMW will handle its various awards presentations this year, including the Canadian Music and Broadcast Industry Awards, the Radio Active Awards and the Live Music Industry Awards.
