Chairman of Oyster Ridge Music Festival remains hopeful to have event this year
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancelation of the Oyster Ridge Music Festival, but Chairman Thomas Lively is hopeful the event will be able to happen this summer.
It held its 25th annual event in 2019 which was the last time it was held. It is tentatively scheduled for July 23-25 and Lively says it has recently met with the city of Kemmerer, police departments, the hospital and he says the conversations were positive.
“All those folks are confident and they’d like to have it,” Lively said. “That we can probably push forward with it.”
He says the big hold up for the event was the restrictions that were in place on outdoor gatherings. He says any limitation on that is going to shut the festival down.
“We don’t have any means of blocking off the whole downtown,” Lively said. “We don’t have the budget to bring in a whole bunch of security and try to secure the whole area, block all the access points.”
He says those things are still a concern if those orders come back into place. He also says to make an official decision the festival committee will need to know about how many volunteers the it can get.
“It’s understandable why people may not want to volunteer at an event like ours,” Lively said. “I’d expect that people are anxious to get out and do these kinds of things, so if the event is held, there will be a lot of people there.”
He says it has reached out over social media and so far the response has been fairly positive as well. He also says the committee will meet this week to make some decisions as well.
Lively says most of the volunteers will only require a couple hour commitment. He says this may mean working at the festival headquarters, serving alcohol, and some strong individuals who can help set up and take down equipment.
“We are a completely volunteer organization,” Lively said. “From the board to everything that happens on that weekend.”
He says it is a good economic driver for the community, so if anyone wants to help you can send a message on the event’s website at oysterridgemusicfestival.com.
