Despite music festivals being canceled across the nation, officials with the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum say ROMP Fest 2020 is still on.
ROMP officials have three months to decide whether to hold the bluegrass music festival as scheduled, cancel the festival or reschedule it for a later date. ROMP, which brings in thousands of out-of-towners and locals each year, is currently scheduled to take place June 24-27 at Yellow Creek Park.
“It’s three months out — we haven’t made any changes to the schedule,” said Bluegrass Hall of Fame Executive Director Chris Joslin. “We’ve talked about what we can do to make it the most hygienic event we can.”
Joslin said the plans to hold the festival during June may change. ROMP officials will deal with that when the time comes.
Joslin and his team haven’t yet reached out to the performers scheduled to perform at ROMP — a lineup that includes popular musicians such as Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers, Live From Here, Sam Bush and The Devil Makes Three.
The economic impact from ROMP is huge, not only for the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum but for the entire city and county, Joslin said.
“The greatest challenge for us is that ROMP is our biggest fundraiser, so it needs to go well to provide our educational programs at the museum, and so many other important programs we have,” Joslin said. “It’s an important event for us, and it’s an important event for the city.”
Joslin said he has fingers crossed for a quick resolution to the spread of COVID-19, but with the number of infected people increasing each day and the peak of infected people in the Commonwealth not yet reached, it’s hard to determine what will happen with ROMP.
Artists currently scheduled may not be available to perform on a different date, and it could change the entire lineup if ROMP is forced to make those kinds of changes.
Until more is known, Joslin said he’s waiting it out until a decision is made. For now, he and his team at the Bluegrass museum are working from home and providing musical outlets for the community via social media.
“We have almost 300 students involved in our Saturday music lessons program, and we have been able to film lessons to create a distance learning program,” he said. “We’re really trying to catch up on some things we always wanted to do, but didn’t have time to do.”
Another one of those pieces the museum has been happy to see come to fruition is a collaborative video they did with the Kentucky State Tourism organization, which went out on the organization’s social media platforms on Friday.
The bluegrass museum will also be recording a live tour throughout their space and posting excerpts from past concerts inside Woodward Theatre via their Facebook page.
“Since you can’t come to us, we want to bring it to you,” Joslin said.
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