Fresno’s annual music festival, Grizzly Fest, will not return in 2020. The festival announced that it will be in “hibernation” this year, awaiting a long-term agreement with the city of Fresno, according to Grizzly Fest’s Instagram.

Grizzly Fest was first held at the Fresno Fairgrounds by local Fresno rapper Fashawn in 2012. The event was moved to Chukchansi Park in 2015 to 2017 for a successful two years. In hopes for more space that would allow the festival to expand and manifest year after year, the festival was then moved to Woodward Park from 2018 to 2019 for a two-day event put on by IAN Group.

In 2018, the Fresno City Council expressed both support and backlash for the Grizzly Fest. 

According to The Fresno Bee, councilman Steve Bredefeld, whose District 6 includes the park, said he received about 100 noise complaints about the music festival last year and said he looks forward to the city completing a noise study during the event this year.

Bredefeld supports Grizzly Fest but feels it would be better suited downtown.

Councilman Steve Brandau, who last year opposed having the event in Woodward Park, said he has changed his mind. He said he drove on the streets in his District 2 and the Woodward Park neighborhood during the 2018 event and didn’t find noise from the festival to be overly disruptive.

The 2018 festival brought in a crowd of about 16,000 and continued on in 2019 with big headliners such as G-Eazy, Jessie Reyez, Schoolboy Q, and Matt and Kim.

The event’s cancellation has come as a surprise for local fans and members who have worked to keep this festival going for as many years as it has.

Not only did the event’s cancellation come as a disappointment to fans, but it also impacted vendors, radio stations and bands. 

Local bands in Fresno such as Cloudship were saddened about the cancellation. 

Brandon Freeman, drummer/keyboardist and singer for Cloudship shared the band’s past experience. Freeman said the band performed at Grizzly Stadium as well as at Woodward Park, while seeing it grow and become a really good thing for the city. 

“I think it is more of a setback for the people who are throwing the festival more than anything, but it is definitely a setback for local business. I know for a fact that it brought a lot of money into the town,” said Freeman. “Having a gap in between that, we are basically going to miss festival season and that doesn’t look good for the town. We were growing and now we’re shrinking.” 

The Grizzly Fest allowed for local vendors and businesses to promote their restaurants and get their name out in the community. A place like Grizzly Fest is a perfect opportunity for locals to profit and make connections during this festival.

“We were really disappointed in hearing that today. We have been a vendor at the Grizzly Fest for the last four years,” said Damon Miller, owner of Chicken Shack. “The IAN group and their crew really work hard to have an amazing event for the residents of Fresno, and this was definitely sad to hear.” 

Fatty Cakes and Pastries (FCAP) lead singer Amber Fargano and backup singer Staci McDowell said their band had a positive experience at Grizzly Fest meeting new friends and fans. The people most supportive of them were the people in charge of the stage, and their performances gave them templates to use for their future shows, they said. 

FCAP shared their thoughts on the dialectics between Grizzly Fest having its location move from downtown to Woodward Park.

“There is a lot of conversations at City Council because the previous years of having Snoop Dogg as the headline. I know a lot of more northern bases who are generally more white population were upset about it being in Woodward Park,” said Fargano. “I definitely think it was a different crowd this last year. I think there is something about having it downtown, maybe having it more community-based.”

The festival’s cancellation has certainly come as a surprise to locals. Fresno State student Elenore Oliva said that the festival was an amazing opportunity for the community to see local music and local businesses. 

“I remember the first year I went, I was in awe. Fresno does not get things like this often and I wanted to soak up every minute of it,” she said. “I unfortunately was not able to go last year, but I told my friends who had never been before that this was our year to go. So when they announced it was not continuing on, I was disappointed for our town from the progress we were making.” 

For further updates on the festival’s outcome, fans and locals may follow Grizzly Fest’s social media accounts. Instagram and Twitter : @grizzly_fest