UPDATE 3 P.M.: Mad River Summerfest added this to their page:

We paid and signed for event insurance before this weekend. Lack of communitcation with our insurance company is what lead to the cancellation of our event. 

We are in the works of putting together another free event as compensation for those of you who came out, we appologize but we can not give you a refund. 

Our vendors will be refunded their money! 

We are all members of this community and are extremely disappointed as well. We love you guys! Hopefully we can make it up to you! Thank you for your support and understanding, stay posted!

UPDATE 12:30 a.m. P.M.: While it’s surely a bummer that festival goers are going to miss out on a solid day of local music, Summerfest was also set to donate proceeds to the Mad River Alliance, a nonprofit which works to keep said river clean. As you can imagine, no festival means a serious dent in projected funds.

So, couple things: If you’d like to make a donation to MRA click here. Or, if you’re thirsty, Six Rivers Brewery has stepped up and will donate 10% of beer sales today to the nonprofit.

Now you know. -Andrew Goff

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UPDATE 10:15 a.m.: The below screenshot From the Summerfest Facebook page. Find other things to do with your Saturday in today’s Lowdown. -Andrew Goff

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UPDATE, 8:59 a.m. Saturday:

 ”We haven’t given up.” - Bob Smith, Summerfest beer director

Smith told KHUM that organizers are “feverishly trying to resolve the glitch in insurance” so that the festival can go forward today, but to check their Facebook page for updates. 

How did this all happen? Smith said that there was a last-minute change in the price, followed by a communication failure between the insurance company and festival organizers.  

-Mike Dronkers

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UPDATE, 8:55 p.m. Friday: Our CHP tracker has a couple of tantalizing peeks at the chaos going down in Blue Lake:

  • 7:19 p.m.: [1] PEOPLE ARE STARTING TO PARK ON THE COUNTY RD
  • 7:20 p.m.: [2] EVENT COORDINATOR HAS CLOSED PARKING ON PRVT PROPERTY

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ORIGINAL POST: You know Mad River Summerfest — that big festival in Blue Lake that’s happening tonight and tomorrow?

Well, it’s not happening tonight. We have no word yet on tomorrow. Stay tuned.

At about 8 p.m., two hours after the thing was supposed to start, the event organizers posted this on their Facebook page:

Summerfest has been delayed temporarily tonight due to logistical issues. We will keep you informed on when we can let you in.

So: A lot of unhappy people in sunny Blue Lake tonight, we assume. Some or most of them are heading over to Humbrews, where two of tonight’s would-be headliners —- Miracle Show and Naive Melodies — are playing a last-minute emergency show.