Kelowna's Denim on the Diamond festival has been cancelled

Photo: Denim on the Diamond

Upwards of 4,000 people packed King Stadium in Kelowna in September 2019.

While it was all but a foregone conclusion at this point, Kelowna's Denim on the Diamond music festival officially cancelled the 2020 event on Friday.

The wildly successful one-day festival that has taken over Kelowna's King Stadium for the past two years will not be returning in September 2020, due to public health orders currently in place that restrict events to less than 50 people.

Despite the downer news, organizers Kurt Jory and Mitch Carefoot appear to have maintained their sense of humour.

“All of our denim facemasks and collective wishful thinking wasn't enough to squash COVID-19 in time to host the festival this year (and the test results from the homemade antidote we concocted are still inconclusive),” Jory and Carefoot said in a statement.

And while other events have offered partial discounts to ticket-holders in an effort to recoup lost expenses, Denim on the Diamond ticket-holders are getting a full refund on their credit card within seven to 10 days.

"Without you Loyal Denimites, who purchased tickets immediately as they went on sale, there is no Denim. It's that simple," the organizers said. "We love you and we love our community."

The cancellation comes after Jory and Carefoot's other venture, the inaugural AltiTunes concert at Big White, was postponed and then cancelled back in the spring due to the pandemic. 

“If you know anything about us, hopefully it's the fact that we will find a way to safely produce live music events because we have seen first hand how the power of music connects communities,” the organizers said.

“We are grateful for the success Denim experienced over its short tenure, extremely thankful to have such an amazing community and we are hopeful that you will attend and support us in the future when the show eventually goes on.”