BUKU: Planet B Canceled, Organizers ‘Don’t See A Guaranteed Path Forward’

BUKU: Planet B, a “one-time alternate take” on the BUKU Music + Art Project in New Orleans that was to take place Oct. 22-23 with Megan Thee Stallion, Machine Gun Kelly, Illenium and others, has been canceled with organizers tweeting that there was no guaranteed path forward.

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>making a tough call re: planet B. refund emails comin’ next week, get vaxxed + stay safe. see y’all in 2022. <a href=”https://t.co/Kqz3WX05Hy”>pic.twitter.com/Kqz3WX05Hy</a></p>&mdash; The BUKU Project (@thebukuproject) <a href=”https://twitter.com/thebukuproject/status/1428744479876468741?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>August 20, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>


The announcement notes that BUKU’s 2022 lineup is guaranteed to be a hit.
The event was to take place as a scaled-down version of the festival, still with 50 artists on the lineup, taking place against the backdrop of the Market Street Power Plant, intending to “harness the chaos of last year and release it in the form of raw creativity.”
The event is produced by Winter Circle Productions, creator of the BUKU Music + Art Project. WCP joined AEG Presents in 2015 to run if Gulf Coast regional office and in 2020 became operator of Hangout Music Festival.  
The news comes as artists including Garth Brooks and Florida Georgia Line have canceled or postponed their remaining handfuls of dates for 2021, and as market leaders Live Nation, AEG Presents, I.M.P., Oak View Group (Pollstar’s parent company) and others announcing revamped COVID policies that largely require proof of COVID vaccination and/or a negative test before entering. The news also notably comes a few weeks after New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival announced it would not be taking place in 2021, moving to its usual springtime setting in ’22. The news was followed by Stevie Nicks pulling out of her remaining festival dates for 2021 as well, including Austin City Limits and BottleRock Napa Valley.