Award organizers manage to take heartbreak in stride
The lights dimmed. Music played over the speakers. Screens flashed with names of nominees for the 2020 Juno Awards — but the hall was empty. Following the announcement Thursday that the Juno Awards and all Junos-related events in Saskatoon were cancelled due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, the team at Prairieland Park wanted to see — if only for themselves and even if no one else would — the presentation they’d created for the awards gala.
“It’s an eerie mood,” one worker said.
Between the Saturday night gala at Prairieland Park and the awards show broadcast on Sunday at the Sasktel Centre, over 40 awards celebrating the best of Canadian music were set to be presented. Organizers said the decision to call off the awards week came “with an incredibly heavy heart.”
Kirby Wirchenko, the executive and artistic director of the Broadway Theatre, said it was hard to hear the Junos had been called off. Wirchenko had been tasked by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) to organize and produce Junofest — the two-day event featuring dozens of performers playing at venues across the city.
“There’s no point being angry at people or things. It’s really just disappointment,” he said in an interview. “For all that sweat you put in, you just want to see it happen.”
Though disappointed, Wirchenko said he thinks CARAS handled the situation in the best way it could. “I have nothing but respect and admiration for (CARAS) for handling it well,” he said.
“They hung it out as long as they could with support from provincial and federal health authorities … I respected the Junos for being in constant contact with the right people, and also for (Thursday) morning being able to say ‘For good conscience, we’ve got to pull this thing.’ ”
Organizers said the decision was made through “collaborative discussions and with input and guidance and the full support of our trusted partners,” including the Saskatchewan Health Authority and the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health.
“We are devastated to cancel this national celebration of music, but at this time of global uncertainty, the health, safety and well-being of all Canadians must stand at the forefront of any decisions that impact our communities,” Junos organizers, the Saskatchewan government, the City of Saskatoon and Tourism Saskatoon said Thursday in a joint statement.
According to Health Canada, as of Thursday afternoon, there were 138 confirmed cases in Canada and three probable cases — including the first presumptive case in Saskatchewan. According to the province, the resident is in their 60s with recent travel to Egypt.
The announcement from the Junos came amid a furious 24 hours globally during which markets, sports, entertainment and travel were all affected. Juno Week was set to include the Juno Cup hockey game, dozens of live performances through the weekend, fan events, a banquet and awards ceremony Saturday and the live broadcast
Sunday from Sasktel Centre.
“We salute and appreciate all the 2020 nominees,” organizers said, adding that CARAS “will continue to explore options to co-ordinate an alternative way to honour” this year’s winners and special award recipients.
Saskmusic president Kurt Dahl said he was “reeling ” from the cancellation but appreciates that the “tough decision” had to be made.
“It’s really sad, but I get it,” Dahl said in an interview.
“I think I felt that they had to cancel it.”
Dahl figured the “writing was on the wall” when event organizers began pulling the plug on large gatherings earlier this week.
It is just the second time in the 49-year history of the Junos that a ceremony has not been held. Following the 1987 awards, CARAS changed the Junos from a fall ceremony to a spring event, which meant the ceremony that would have typically been held in the fall of 1988 was shifted to the spring of 1989.