Summerfest has lost its first headliner for 2021
Summerfest was canceled in 2020 for the first time in its 54-year history because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Now the Milwaukee music festival has lost its first headliner for 2021.
Halsey has canceled her summer tour behind her latest album “Manic,” the pop star announced Friday night. The tour was scheduled to stop at Summerfest’s largest venue, the 23,000-capacity American Family Insurance Amphitheater, on July 3.
“I miss seeing all of you in the crowd every night more than anything, but I need to prioritize your health and safety,” Halsey wrote in a statement.
Summerfest has not announced the cancellation of its Halsey date — but, tellingly, her name has been removed from the 2021 lineup on its website and Facebook event page.
Halsey said emails regarding refund information would be sent out, telling fans to contact their point of purchase if they haven’t heard anything by Monday.
It’s the second major Milwaukee concert of 2021 to be affected by the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, after Michael Bublé’s Fiserv Forum show set for February was bumped to September.
The touring industry suddenly shut down last March because of the pandemic, and venues across much of the world remain dark.
Last month, Joe Berchtold, president of Live Nation, the world’s largest promoter, said the company expected outdoor concerts to come back this summer.
But Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious diseases expert, has suggested that 75% to 85% of the nation’s population would need to be vaccinated before the concert industry could come back. He expressed hope at a White House news conference this week that that threshold could be achieved by the end of the summer.
In recent days, major U.S. festivals like Governor’s Ball in New York and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival have postponed their 2021 dates to this fall. Glastonbury in England, one of the world’s premier summer music festivals, canceled for a second consecutive year this week.
For now, Summerfest, the largest music festival in the United States, is still on for 2021, beginning June 24.
“We’re going full steam ahead for June until we’re not,” Don Smiley, CEO for Summerfest parent company Milwaukee World Festival Inc., told the Journal Sentinel in October. Smiley said, without going into specifics, that the festival has contingency plans if those dates aren’t possible.
Originally, Halsey was scheduled to headline Summerfest’s amphitheater last year, following the venue’s $51.3 million renovation.
Those other amphitheater shows, still on for now, include: Khalid (June 24), Luke Bryan with Morgan Wallen (June 25), Justin Bieber (June 26), Dave Matthews Band (July 1), Blink-182 (July 2), Chris Stapleton with Sheryl Crow (July 8), and Guns ‘N Roses (July 10).