Wallace Blues Festival canceled

WALLACE –– The popular Wallace Blues Festival has been canceled according to the event’s organizers.  

According to Alex Cook, the head of the Wallace Blues Festival Committee, technical issues forced the committee’s hand in pulling the plug.  

Reportedly, several hurdles, including venue changes, additional security and facilities, and the new Wallace noise ordinance backed the committee into a corner, but the death blow was a technical issue that would’ve put the festival significantly over budget.   

Annually, the event brings thousands of spectators and dozens of musical acts into Wallace – filling hotels and keeping businesses bustling, making it one of the city’s most profitable events.  

Beyond the unspecified technical issues, the committee was candid about reportedly facing significant opposition from members of the Wallace community, who they believe were actively working against them.  

“We just have not had a stitch of help this year,” Cook said. “And then working with Kellogg did not make people happy. It’s been a hellacious six months. I’m not going to say the entire town is unfriendly, because they’re not. But there is a group of about a dozen people that are loudest ones and they put their thumb down on this since December.”  

Cook and the committee didn’t specify who they were speaking of, but instead told the News-Press, “they know who they are.”  

This year, Cook and the committee had devised a plan that took the festival beyond the streets and buildings in Wallace and added additional days of music in Silverton and in Kellogg. 

According to Cook, after several changes, the festival was only approved for two days in Wallace, so they added the additional days in the new locations allowed the festival to generate the necessary funds to attract the bigger acts. 

While the committee was dismayed with the perceived opposition from Wallace, they praised the efforts made by Kellogg to be a part of the event.  

“The police chief, the fire chief, and the city planner in Kellogg, they were great,” Cook said. “Here, they were like, ‘how can we make this hard,’ and over there it was, ‘how can we make this easy.” 

The news of the event’s cancellation has frustrated many of the local business owners, who rely on the funds generated from the historically busy weekend.  

A group of these business owners have begun planning a new event, called Wallace Music Fest, that they are going to try to pull off during the originally scheduled Blues Festival weekend. According to social media, they’re attempting to keep the originally scheduled artists, who would be playing the different businesses throughout the weekend.  

Currently, Albertini’s Gem Bar is confirmed to have music on Friday and Saturday nights, while others are still waiting on confirmations.  

The Blues Festival Committee is currently working on getting refunds to anyone who pre-purchased tickets. For more information contact the Wallace Arts Council at (208) 582-1874.  

Should the Wallace Music Fest happen, the News-Press will provide information for the event.