Charlotte Center City Partners and Blumenthal Performing Arts Delay Charlotte SHOUT! until 2021

Charlotte SHOUT!, originally scheduled for this fall, will return the second weekend after Labor Day 2021

Charlotte Center City Partners and Blumenthal Performing Arts announced today that the 2020 Charlotte SHOUT! Festival will be delayed until September 2021. The annual center city celebration of art, music, food and ideas, planned for Sept. 18- Oct. 4, 2020, will instead return the second weekend after Labor Day in September 2021. The decision to cancel the festival this year comes after discussion with health authorities, public officials and festival artists. The uncertainty of COVID-19 conditions and public safety protocols in effect at the time of the festival, as well as difficulties related to planning travel by featured international artists, drove the decision.



"It's disappointing that we're not able to proceed with SHOUT! this fall, but we look forward to its return in 2021," said Blumenthal President Tom Gabbard. "The opportunity to celebrate music, art, ideas and food is something we'll savor even more next year when it will be safe to be together, again."



Robert Krumbine, Chief Creative Officer for Charlotte Center City Partners, agreed: "While we are disappointed to have to make this decision, we are committed to celebrating our creative, unique city and we will be back bigger and better next year. Count on it!"

Charlotte SHOUT! 2019 marked the first time Charlotte Center City Partners and Blumenthal Performing Arts partnered together to plan and produce the festival, which had been on hiatus since 2009. The festival's inaugural revival was a big success with more than 200 events over its two-week run in late April and early May of 2019. The 2020 festival date was moved from the spring to the fall prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The change was made to allow the festival to expand its run to cover three, full weekends.



Center City Partners and Blumenthal Performing Arts will partner again on SHOUT! 2021. The organizations will use the coming months to identify the best festival artists and activities from around from around the corner and around the world to bring to Charlotte. Along with a lineup of national and international artists, regional and local stars will be included in SHOUT! Regional and local artists interested in being part of 2021 SHOUT! can visit CharlotteSHOUT.com for more information. Applications to apply as an artist, musician, speaker or vendor, are available now.

Check out the video below to relive the fun from 2019's festival.



