HELIX — Wheatstock Music Festival announced they are postponing their 2020 event to August 21, 2021, due to the pandemic.

The musical festival was originally slated to take place on August 15, 2020, with a lineup of musicians including Randy Rogers.

“Due to Covid-19, sadly we must cancel,” stated an announcement on Wheatstock’s Facebook Page. “We care too much about our fans, artists and volunteers to risk putting anyone in harm’s way.”

Founder and president of Wheatstock Dwayne Dunlap said the board members agreed that cancellation was the best option and didn’t want to go further into planning this year’s event knowing there’s a possibility of having to shut it down as a result of the pandemic.

“It didn’t look feasible to us to go through the process and then have to shut it down,” he said. “But, full speed ahead for next year.”

This year would have marked the festival’s 13th anniversary. Dunlap said he expected it to be a banner year for the city in terms of revenue. Last year, he said around 1,500-1,800 attended the festival.

Dunlap also said he believes the cancellation of the festival will most likely impact the economy of the area, noting that festival-goers from out of town would come and spend the weekend in the area, which in turn provided business to vendors, restaurants and hotels.

He stated that those working the event — musicians and vendors who travel around the circuit to different events in Eastern Oregon, such as the county fair and the Pendleton Round-up — are likely hurting financially as a result.

“Everybody is disappointed,” he said. “All that stuff is just gone this year for everybody.”

Wheatstock Music festival is a nonprofit organization that donates its revenue to two local organizations, the Helix High School Music Program and Divide Camp.

Dunlap said they began supporting the Helix High School Music Program a few years back when the program began facing budgetary cuts.

“Music and those kinds of things always go first,” he said. “So we started giving them whatever we could give them after each festival.”

The festival has donated approximately $40,000 over the years to the two nonprofit organizations, according to Dunlap.

Jonathan Butler, Helix Band and Music Director, said the Wheatstock donations support the purchase of new instruments, sheet music and other materials used in the music program. He stated that not receiving the money from Wheatstock means he will need to be more cautious with spending.

“Wheatstock funding would make things easier, but it is the difficult times that will define us,” Butler said. “I am very grateful for all the hard work that goes into planning Wheatstock every year and the funding that allows my music and band program to grow. I’m also grateful for the abundance of caution in canceling this and other events.”

Founder and director of Divide Camp Julie Wheeler said the organization has also scaled back their budget and understands not a lot of people can donate right now as a result of the pandemic.

We’ve dialed down our program,” she said. “We are just cutting back everything, that’s what everybody is doing. Every nonprofit is in the same boat we are.”

Although the festival is canceled, Dunlap said they are hoping to come up with a plan so they can provide some sort of funding.

“We’re going to try and work something out where we can still get both programs this year some kind of help,” he said.

For now, Dunlap said the festival board is already planning next year’s Wheatstock and have secured Randy Rogers as the 2021 headliner.