US loses its last-but-one summer festival

Ravinia, the oldest American music festival running from June to mid-September, has pulled the plug on summer 2020.

The website reminds us that ‘Ravinia has operated continually since its 1904 opening except for 1932–1935, when the park was silenced by the Great Depression.’

This was to have been the final show for Ravinia’s veteran President and CEO Welz Kauffman. He’s working on virtual alternatives for the students who attend its courses: ‘The lives of these young students have been thrown in total disarray, so it is important that Ravinia helps where it can to provide the structure of these virtual classrooms. Our programs give young people a means of expression and connection with each other and their own quarantined families. We teach them that music is their superpower, and what better time than now to have a superpower?’

Tanglewood is now the last major US festival still to declare its future.

UPDATE: I’m reminded that Aspen Music Festival, the biggest in terms of students, has cancelled just the first two weeks. It will decide in mid-May on the rest.