With September fast approaching, this means the return of the Harvest Music Festival, a time for kicking back and enjoying live music. However, this year many find themselves wondering how the province’s recent decision to “go green” will affect the festival.
“Given that COVID is still here in the province, we are going to provide as safe an experience as possible for our patrons, for our volunteers, for the artists, and for the staff and crew that help make it happen,” said Jeff Richardson, general manager of Harvest.
For the past year, the Harvest team has been hard at work planning for different possibilities.
“We probably had five different working models of what the festival could look like,” said Richardson. “And then we refined each of them to reflect the scenario that we anticipate our province would be in in the fall and then finally decided to execute on the current model when the province announced its reopening plan.”
Richardson looked at other music festivals similar to Harvest across North America to see what were the best practices being used.
“There is a strong network of independent music festivals here in Canada that shoot notes back and forth every day trying to figure out the best way and safest way to provide as close as an experience to the previous festivals we’ve had as is possible,” said Richardson.
In terms of setup this year, the Blue’s Tent will be located in the parking lot of City Hall. There will also be a free, outdoor stage on Officer’s Square for anyone to bring lawn chairs and blankets for easy physical distancing. Throughout the venue, there will be hand sanitizing stations and washrooms.
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Last Thursday, Harvest posted a reminder on their Facebook that all who attend will have to be vaccinated two weeks before the show.
“From the second we announced our lineup we expected our patrons to be fully vaccinated to attend Harvest,” said Richardson. “In the Blue’s Tent and the Fredericton Playhouse.”
Richardson said this decision is in line with Public Health Canada guidelines and what the government of New Brunswick recommends for large events like Harvest.
It also seems to be in line with what patrons of Harvest want. In early May, Harvest released a survey asking under what conditions would they feel safest returning to the festival. In about twenty-four hours they had 3,200 responses, overwhelmingly in favour of a vaccine requirement. About 90 percent of Harvest’s volunteers agreed.
Throughout the week, Harvest is also encouraging mask-wearing and physical distancing when possible. Harvest will still welcome buskers throughout the downtown and a reduced number of artisans and food vendors.
“We’ve had volunteers and staff and organizers working really hard for months now to try to put on as best a festival as we can in the safest environment as possible,” said Richardson. “We think we have that to offer and we are grateful for the patience of our audience as we adjust our policies.”
More information about specific COVID protocols and updates can be found on their website.
Rachel Smith is a summer intern for Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
