It is with heavy yet hopeful hearts that we are rescheduling the 49th celebration of the Kerrville Folk Festival. Our 2020 Festival will be held at Quiet Valley Ranch on October 8 thru October 18. This replaces Welcome Home Fest, which will not be held in 2020.

 

The great advantage of "flattening the curve" that we have all heard so much about is that it keeps COVID-19 from devastating our population and overwhelming our medical facilities. The disadvantage is that it slows and therefore extends the course. As most of you have likely concluded by now it is not realistic to think that this is going to run its course and be "over" by the mid-May. We can hope but we can't plan a Festival on hope.

 

The longer we wait to reschedule the more difficult it becomes. If we wait till mid-April or early-May to make the call then we have waited too long, spent too much money and most likely blown our shot of having a 2020 Festival at all. We also risk virus exposure of our fantastic volunteers and staff doing preparations on the ranch. It's highly likely that the County or State were going to make this decision for us, but we wouldn't have known for sure until very close to Fest.

 

We will have much more information to share soon about tickets, reservations, bookings, elections and much, much more but we wanted to get this out to y'all ASAP. We have as many questions as you do right now, and it'll take us a little time to flesh out the answers.

 

We will update you more as soon as we know more. In the meantime, please don't flood the office with inquiries because they don't yet have the answers.

 

Mary and her staff are already hard at work to make this happen. The really good news is that many of the artists that we were all so excited about are already rescheduled for the new October dates! We're going to squeeze as much of our 18-day magic into 11 days as we possibly can. However, the main part of that magic is you. You the ticket buyers, you the KFF Foundation Members, and you the volunteers!

 

Everybody else who has cancelled their Spring event is also trying to reschedule for Fall. Mary has been in touch with several, and they are working cooperatively on dates. We know that our first weekend overlaps with ACL and our second weekend overlaps with the Austin String Band Festival.

 

Please keep us first in your hearts and first on your schedules.

 

After all, we're family and we look forward to welcoming you Home on October 8 for a fantastic KFF2020!

Watch the website for details and remember to hit refresh so you see current updates.

 

For those of you who have purchased advanced tickets, paid for RV spaces, enrolled in workshops or classes, paid for a craft booth, you will receive a personal email within the next 10-days detailing your options. Please be patient as we develop equitable alternatives for these purchases.

 

For those of you who have entered New Folk, the 24 finalists will be announced on May 15th, and the New Folk contest will be held during the Fall Festival.

 

To a person, we believe that our true purpose is to embrace this fragile miracle called the Kerrville Folk Festival such that we do not drop and break it.

 

We have always known that this thing we have been given is ours to hold only for a short while before it is time hand it off to the next generation of Kerrverts who will serve as our guardians and leaders.

 

It is in that spirit, that we will welcome you Home in October, and move forward together into the next 50-years.

 

Always yours in love and song,

 

KFFF Board of Directors

Mary Muse, KFFF Executive Director