Atlin, B.C., arts and music festival cancelled again this year

Organizers of the Atlin Arts and Music Festival have pulled the plug on the summer event again this year, just a month after announcing that it was happening.

"It's a sad situation, and I can tell you the board is really, you know, heartbroken," said Matthew Lien, one of the principal organizers.

This year's event was scheduled to happen in early July in Atlin, B.C., and was going to be a scaled-back version of festivals past. The funding was in place, Lien said, and organizers had a "killer lineup of headliners" in the works.

But things took a turn. Lien described a number of factors that together made it impossible to pull it all together.

First, there was the Haa Ḵusteeyí celebration to be hosted by the Taku River Tlingit First Nation in Atlin around the same time. Lien said there were concerns that two big events back-to-back might be too much for the small community.

Another hurdle was finding people to fill some key positions. That was proving difficult, Lien said.

And then there was a more significant setback. Lien said a family that's always at the heart of the festival just received some devastating news, and can't participate as they have in the past.

"That alone would have been enough to bring the festival to a halt, but all things together ... It's just clear that it is not in the cards," he said.

"We felt it was better to, you know, once again pull the plug sooner than later, before we actually lock in contracts and everything."

Before 2020, the small-town festival had grown to be a relatively big event on the summer calendar of many Yukoners. Past lineups have included big names such as Bruce Cockburn, Ian Tyson and Gord Downie.

Then the pandemic hit and the event was cancelled in 2020 and again in 2021. Organizers attempted to revive it, on a smaller scale, in 2022 but then cancelled again because of COVID-19 concerns. 

Now, Lien admits that the festival again has an uncertain future.

"There is that question, certainly," he said.

He said the festival board plans to take a hard look at what needs to change in order to keep it alive in years to come.

"Clearly there needs to be, you know, changes made if we wanted to try to do this again," he said.

"We just really wanted to give people what they wanted, and what we would love to provide. There's so many people that are wanting this fest to come back."