The organizers of the Wanderland Music & Arts Festival, arguably the city’s biggest and most diverse roundup of live musical performances, announced today that the event will be postponed indefinitely — just three days before it was set to kick off at the Filinvest City Grounds in Alabang, Muntinlupa.
Festival organizers blamed municipal authorities for the move, saying on social media that “despite our best efforts to implement health and safety measures in the festival,” this year’s Wanderland will have to be rescheduled to a later date “in compliance with the directive of the City Government of Muntinlupa not to hold the event at this time” due to fears surrounding the global coronavirus outbreak.
It’s unclear what the “directive” in question said, but the Health Department has previously said that it can only encourage, but not require the public to avoid big, crowded events, as the country has not reported a single local transmission of the virus.
The seven-year-old festival had rounded up a few dozen local and international artists this year, including Pinoy acts Barbie Almalbis, Urbandub, and IV of Spades, along with U.K. rock band Foals, Thai indie artist Phum Viphurit, and Australian trip-hop artist Nick Murphy, aka Chet Faker. The lineup, however, had seen some changes as some artists on the roster canceled.
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No details have yet been provided about when the festival will finally go ahead, but organizers note that refunds and new dates for the two-day event will be announced on their social accounts soon.
“With our goal to give you the best Wanderland experience this year, your health & safety remain to be our top priority,” they added.
Read about more (uncanceled) events to see in the metro here.
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