Moogfest called off for 2020 in Durham, with future of festival on hold
Moogfest, a festival that celebrates the intersection of music, art and technology, is on hold for 2020 because of “logistical reasons,” organizers announced Thursday.
According to a statement, the hiatus will be “used to focus on the future of Moogfest and to investigate new ways of exploring the future of music, art, and technology.”
“As an organization, our purpose is to create deeply meaningful experiences and relationships in order to continually enrich our creative community,” organizers said in a statement.
Friday, a Moogfest spokesperson declined to provide further details about what led to the decision about the multi-day event in April, referring to organizers’ original statement Thursday.
The festival has been in Durham since 2016 and has become one of the city’s signature events, drawing 10,000 people and an economic impact of $7.2 million in 2017, the most recent data available. The News & Observer reported.
“We are clearly sorry to see them go on hiatus for a year,” said Susan Amey, CEO of Discover Durham, the city’s tourism bureau, in a phone interview Friday. “We hope it’s just a temporary setback. We completely respect that festivals are a big thing that take a tremendous amount of work. It’s easy to understand they need to take a little time, when you’re doing a festival that is all about technology and innovation, you really have to stay on the forefront of best best practices and technology and innovation.”
The event has attracted eclectic musical acts as well as artists like Odesza, Questlove and Michael Stipe and up-and-coming acts. It also had a social activism vibe, with soldier-turned-activist Chelsea Manning a speaker two years ago and an anti-House Bill 2 fundraiser before that.
The festival had been set for April 16-19, and organizers had marketed ticket sales online earlier this year.
The multi-day event and tech conference got its start in 2004 in New York as a tribute to the inventor of the Moog synthesizer, the late Robert Arthur “Bob” Moog.
It moved to Asheville in 2010 and then to Durham in 2016. The 2020 festival would have been the fifth year in Durham.
Moogfest and Durham seemed liked a natural fit, Amey said, with both focusing on technology and creativity. The festival itself is “very energizing,” she said, with people traveling from venue to venue throughout the city.
“You can just kind of feel the electricity in the air,” she said.
Amey said she didn’t know of the event’s cancellation in advance and has reached out to organizers to see about being of assistance for when the festival returns in the future.
“We have a community that was really excited about it, and will be when they decide to reestablish it,” Amey said. “We’ll be here with open arms.”
In the meantime, Amey said Durham has several signature festivals, including the American Dance Festival, Art of Cool, the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and the Bimbe Cultural Arts Festival. Some have made changes over the years, including Art of Cool’s move from spring to fall.
UG Strategies took over as producer/operator in 2018, with organizers promising little changes to attendees, The N&O reported.
“We are wanting to grow it,” Parag Bhandari, UG Strategies founder/CEO told The N&O in 2018. “Our goal is to expand and utilize Durham’s footprint, invest in the community and everything that has made this city what it is.”
Moog died in Asheville in 2005 and is considered the father of electronic music.
Organizers cited past artists including Devo, Laurie Anderson, Gary Numan and Kraftwerk and said they would continue to support aspiring artists and celebrate those who “shape electronic music as we hear it today.”
Ticket-holders can email moogfest@moogmusic.com for information about refunds.
This story was originally published December 5, 2019 at 4:57 PM with the headline "Moogfest called off for 2020 in Durham, with future of festival on hold."