Shellabration 2020 Canceled Due to COVID-19

Posted: May 12, 2020

Shellabration 2020 Canceled Due to COVID-19
Cheap Trick with special guest 38 Special rescheduled for 7/2/2021
Fort Dodge, Iowa
After “exhaustive ongoing discussions and careful consideration”, the Shellabration
Inc. Board of Directors has made the difficult decision to cancel this year’s
Shellabration and Downtown Country Jam events. “The health and safety of our
attendees, volunteers, sponsors, contractors and community will always be our
highest priority, said Shellabration Inc. President, Jim Reed. With the ongoing public
health threat due to COVID-19 unlikely to subside any time soon, canceling was
both the responsible and conscientious thing to do. Even if large scale events were
hypothetically permitted later this year, the social distancing requirements would
make attempting to stage an event with several thousand people untenable,” added
Reed.
In addition to the compelling public health risk, the organization also considered the
long-term financial ramifications, were the State of Iowa to permit large scale
gatherings at some point this year. “With significantly lower sponsorship and ticket
sale revenue due to the current economic climate, we would be putting our ability to
stage future shows at risk, said Shellabration Inc. VP, Ted Bodensteiner. While we
could cover the loss with our cash reserve in the short term, to jeopardize
everything we’ve built in the past 19 seasons was a chance we weren’t willing to
take,” underscored Bodensteiner.
While disappointed to have to cancel their events for 2020, the upside is the group
was able to get all of their artists rescheduled for Shellabration 2021. Next year’s
event will take place on Friday, July 2, 2021 featuring Cheap Trick with special
guest 38 Special plus Saucy Jack. “The bands and agencies were great to work
with in getting our date rescheduled, said Reed. We’re incredibly excited to keep
our lineup intact. The fact that July 2nd falls on a Friday next year versus a Thursday
in 2020 is an added bonus,” he added. All tickets purchased for this year’s event
slated for 7/2/20 through Ticketweb will be automatically refunded to the credit card
they were purchased on. There is no action required to receive a refund. The
physical tickets received for 2020 cannot be used in 2021. New tickets will need to
be purchased. Tickets for next year’s event are tentatively scheduled to go on sale
Saturday, February 27, 2021.
“We hope the public will respect and support our decision to cancel and live for
another day, said Reed. Having survived severely weather impacted events over
the years, we thought we’d seen it all. Never could we have imagined having to
cancel an event due to a global pandemic. That said, we’ll learn from this
circumstance and continue working diligently to produce the highest quality shows
possible for the greater Fort Dodge and Northwest Iowa area. Fort Dodge ROCKS,”
emphasized Reed.
Shellabration Inc. Ÿ PO Box 752, Fort Dodge, IA Ÿ (515) 570-0176
Serving the Fort Dodge area community through performing arts & entertainment!