Sasquatch! Festival Founder Stepping Down, Event Won't Happen In 2019

Mat Hayward / Getty Images – Sasquatch! Music Festival 2015
George, Wash., May 22, 2015

Sasquatch! Music Festival, which has taken place for the last 17 years at the beautiful scenic setting of the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Wash., won’t take place in 2019 following founder Adam Zacks announcing he is stepping down.

“Sasquatch! will forever remain a tapestry of the people who worked with us,” Zacks said in a press statement. “The artists who inspired us, and the varied experiences of the fans who attended it… of friendships made, engagements, hilltop weddings, permanent tattoos, once in a lifetime collaborations, weather events both treacherous and magnificent, at least one very public conception, and, of course, hundreds of awe inspiring performances. My humblest gratitude to all of you.” The event is produced by Live Nation and Zacks.

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>.<a href=”https://twitter.com/Sasquatch?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@Sasquatch</a> founder and producer Adam Zacks announces he's stepping down from the festival after 17 years and that Sasquatch will not return in 2019. <a href=”https://t.co/FgpzbBUmqp”>https://t.co/FgpzbBUmqp</a> <a href=”https://t.co/x00UHcq8X1″>pic.twitter.com/x00UHcq8X1</a></p>— KEXP (@kexp) <a href=”https://twitter.com/kexp/status/1012470397202202624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>June 28, 2018</a></blockquote>

The future of the festival after 2019 is not clear. The event started in 2002 as a one-day event with the String Cheese Incident and has expanded to a major event over Memorial Day weekend and last year reported $3.4 million grossed and more than 36,000 tickets sold with a lineup including Chance The Rapper, The Shins, Chicano Batman and many others.

This year’s event included David Byrne, Modest Mouse, Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver, Vince Staples, Spoon, Tank and The Bangas, Neko Case, Ray LaMontagne, and many others May 25-27.

Other recent Sasquatch! Boxoffice reports submitted to Pollstar include $3.8 million grossed in 2016 and 56,456 tickets sold in 2016 over four days (The Cure, Alabama Shakes, Baroness), and $9.9 million in 2013 over four days with a 27,500 tickets sold to see Built To Spill, Father John Misty, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Arctic Monkeys and many others.

This is a developing story.

The full statement from Zacks is below (via Pitchfork):

Today we take a bow and bid a fond farewell to Sasquatch! I will no longer be producing the Festival, nor will it take place in 2019.

The Festival began 17 years ago on a hunch, greenlit on nothing more than a name and instinct there was space for something with a uniquely Northwest flavor, on Memorial Day weekend, at one of the most beautiful locations on Earth – The Gorge.

17 years is a long time to do anything. The Beatles lasted a mere 8 years, a fact so astonishing it is difficult to believe. While we didn’t accomplish anything as indelible as “Hey Jude”, the Festival left a lasting mark and proudly represented an independent spirit.

Sasquatch! will forever remain a tapestry of the people who worked with us, the artists who inspired us, and the varied experiences of the fans who attended it … of friendships made, engagements, hilltop weddings, permanent tattoos, once in a lifetime collaborations, weather events both treacherous and magnificent, at least one very public conception, and, of course, hundreds of awe inspiring performances. My humblest gratitude to all of you.

May the spirit that made Sasquatch! so special live on.

Onward to the next adventure,

Adam Zacks