Just one month after announcing its 2021 lineup, Dierks Bentley’s Seven Peaks Festival has been canceled. Returning for its third year after a 2020 hiatus, the country star’s event was originally set for September 3rd to 5th in Buena Vista, Colorado.
“Seven Peaks Music Festival is being cancelled for 2021 due to current capacity restrictions in place by local health officials,” the festival tweeted on Friday. “We are already planning for 2022, and a new location will be announced in the coming months.” Passes purchased for this year’s event will be refunded within 30 days.
“We tried everything to make it happen, but Chaffee County has decided against lifting capacity restrictions,” Bentley tweeted from his own account on Friday.
All 2021 passes purchased at https://t.co/OPHvHaGWyJ will automatically be fully refunded within 30 days back to the original form of payment. pic.twitter.com/ZohQyU6QrS
— Dierks Bentley (@DierksBentley) July 9, 2021
Chaffee County has set local guidelines for distancing and masking practices during the Covid era, and outdoor events are still capped at 5,000. Denver television reporter Marshall Zelinger notes that Seven Peaks organizers actually sold more than 6,000 tickets prior to acquiring the festival’s permit from the county.
Seven Peaks is NOT coming to Buena Vista. Chaffee County has a 5,000 outdoor event capacity limit through Aug. 31. This video is from June 23, when Live Nation revealed 6,000 tickets had already been sold for an event that did not yet have a permit to be held. It’s must see! https://t.co/eD3hiDBjYp pic.twitter.com/HmvrptRDfg
— Marshall Zelinger (@Marshall9News) July 9, 2021
In addition to Bentley, performers at this year’s Seven Peaks were to include Keith Urban, Old Crow Medicine Show, and Kip Moore.
While Chaffee County has thorough resources on how and where to get Covid-19 vaccines along with data supporting their efficacy on their website, some of Colorado’s elected Republican officials are working overtime to convince people not to get them. Rep. Lauren Boebert, whose district does not include Buena Vista, tweeted this week about President Biden sending “Needle Nazis” to her turf. More than 600,000 Americans have died from Covid-19.
Colorado is one of a growing number of states becoming a hotspot for the more transmissible delta variant. Over June 24th through 26th, the city of Grand Junction, Colorado, hosted thousands of country music fans at the Country Jam festival, which, according to a report by NPR, was in danger of being canceled by local health officials.