Voodoo Quietly Exits the 2020 Stage

The Halloween weekend festival canceled before it got a chance to announce a lineup.

In a year when we can’t review festivals, I’ve taken to reviewing festival announcements, with Buku doing the best job so far. The most disappointing effort came Friday when the Voodoo Music + Arts Experience announced, “Voodoo Music + Arts Experience will no longer take place this year. While we are disappointed to share this news, the health and safety of our fans, artists, staff and community remains our top priority. We look forward to returning in full force on October 29-31, 2021.” It then went on to encourage people to use their tickets next year, explained the incentives to do so, and announced that full refunds are available. 

Voodoo’s announcement begs to be absorbed rather than read, internalized but not noticed. It wants that information in your head without you knowing how it got there. The voice would be equally apropos announcing the sad cancellation of the Heroes of the Chamber of Commerce Parade or Middle Management Day. It puts the “pro” in pro forma, and it’s not the voice of someone you trust to curate a festival dedicated to rock and dance music in this complicated streaming era. Even its timing at the end of the news week said, Don’t look at me!

The announcement didn’t have to go that way. No one expected Voodoo to operate in 2020, and since the festival usually announced its lineup in the month after Jazz Fest, it not only had time but a natural occasion to make the announcement. They could have easily explained that this time each year, they announce their lineup, but that all responsible projections say that this year’s festival has to be canceled. They could have fit the announcement into Voodoo’s storyline, but instead, they let their announcement seem like a sad coda in the shadow of Jazz Fest’s cancellation.

Perhaps we can chalk it up to corporate depression. It has to suck to cancel your festival before you get a chance to roll out your headliners. Organizers and fans don’t get to have a collective, wistful moment thinking about the great event that wasn’t meant to be. But the last decade has taught us that we’re all brands, and that every utterance doubles as communication and branding. Buku used its cancellation to tells its fans that the organizers are fans too who wanted to festival to happen as badly as they did. Essence’s first line positioned the festival as firmly behind strong, African-American women starting with New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, and the announcement sounded multiple notes of community. Jazz Fest spoke as a festival acutely—and rightly—aware of its own importance. Voodoo’s statement resolves a business transaction, not a rock ’n’ roll moment.

Voodoo has the best chance to return in 2021 as planned since it is more than 18 months away, and that gave producers something to work with. Jazz Fest and French Quarter Festival need scientists to work at peak speed to find a vaccine at the earliest point in the projected window to give those festivals the best chance to run safely, but in October, there’s time for the vaccine to be found, tested, manufactured, and distributed. There are a lot of big ‘ifs’ in that scenario too, but not as many as exist for spring festivals. But instead of positioning Voodoo as the festival you can genuinely look forward to, it quietly crept off the New Orleans festival stage as if it would prefer not to be noticed.