Festival season passes on sale

By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff

To say that 2020 has presented some challenges to The Festival at Sandpoint would be an understatement — and even that understatement would be an understatement. Between the War Memorial Field reconstruction by the city, the Bonner County vs. Sandpoint lawsuit over The Festival’s no-weapons policy and the general turmoil wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic — which resulted in the cancellation of the 2020 season — it’s a testament to the community’s love of the event that it’s even still conceiving of a 2021 season.

The Festival at Sandpoint tent during a past show. Courtesy of Sandpoint Online.

And that it is. Organizers announced the opening of season pass sales Oct. 1, but this year prices will be higher and passes will be limited — both changes stemming from the historic conditions presented by this historic year.

“Due to 2020 season passes rolling over to 2021, we will only be able to sell a limited number of 2021 season passes this year,” Festival interim Executive Director Ali Baranski told the Reader in an email. “The more 2020 season passes that are donated, the more we can sell this fall.”

Those who purchased season passes for the cancelled 2020 season can get more info on how to donate them by emailing [email protected].

Passes to the 2021 Festival give purchasers access to the eight main concerts scheduled for July 29-Aug. 8, 2021. Early bird prices are $239 until Dec. 1, when the cost goes up to $299.  

The passes are only sold online or over the phone this year and will be mailed directly to buyers.

Organizers stressed on the Festival website that there are a limited number of passes available for 2021, “so when they’re gone, they’re gone.”

Organizers also noted that ticketing and city parks fees have increased this year due to the additional expenses incurred by the reconstruction of Memorial Field and installation of an artificial turf surface, asking Festival-goers to “anticipate these higher ticketing fees, in addition to required taxes at checkout.”

Baranski said that The Festival will shoulder a significant financial burden to protect and help the city maintain the new artificial field surface, which was officially opened late this summer. 

“We know that it will be a reoccurring annual cost of over $100,000 to rent event decking, the city’s new and mandatory cleaning fee, new supplies and increased manpower to protect the artificial turf from weight, heat and production equipment,” she told the Reader. “Due to this new expense, we reworked our budget, cut costs and decided an additional ticket fee would be needed.” 

The Sandpoint City Council recently approved an increase in the City Park Fee applied to every ticket by 60%, “despite our urging to delay a year or vote down the increase due to the current economic hardship and the increased overhead this new turf is already costing the Festival,” Baranski added. 

“We do plan on being at War Memorial Field in the upcoming summer series and want our supporters and fans to anticipate these higher ticket fees,” she wrote, though underscored that it’s unclear whether the venue will be workable going into the future.

“In a time when The Festival has needed our city’s support the most, the decisions surrounding the artificial turf project have not made The Festival at Sandpoint’s stay at our current venue easy,” Baranski wrote. “Our hope is to ultimately stay at our home at War Memorial Field, but if staying at our loved location in the coming years ultimately provides an unpleasant fan experience and prevents The Festival from being able to continue our mission in a financially sustainable manner, we will relocate the summer series within the immediate Sandpoint area, if that is what is needed to thrive again in the future.” 

Despite all the hurdles and uncertainty facing the nonprofit arts and culture organization, there’s at least one silver lining — according to Baranski, the cancellation of the 2020 season allowed organizers to get a jump on booking artists.

“We have been able to reschedule some 2020 shows to 2021 and with the lack of Festival this year, we started booking and artist negotiations months earlier than usual for the shows we were unable to reschedule,” she wrote. 

That’s good news for Festival lovers, but the organization is still in need of support — both from season pass sales and general fundraising. The Save Our Festival Critical Relief Fundraiser is ongoing, with donations accepted at festivalatsandpoint.com. Not only will those funds help ensure the continuation of the 2021 concert season, but support the many other educational programs undertaken by The Festival during the year.

“Due to the nature of the year and the financial losses 2020 brought, including the loss of the majority of our future 2021 season pass income, we will need to continue our fundraising efforts throughout the entire year and continue applying for every grant possible to help weather this storm and continue our nonprofit’s mission of bringing economic vitality to the region and music education and culture to our community,” Baranski wrote.