Country Thunder Saskatchewan will not be happening this year.

The music festival has issued a news release saying due to continued uncertainty around border closures and COVID-19 restrictions, the focus will now shift to Country Thunder 2022.

General Manager Kim Blevins says it’s not easy running a music festival company after two years of not being able to hold shows.

“We’re trying to stay afloat, we’re trying to keep things going,” Blevins said. “We have every intention of coming back in 2022, we’re just hoping to continue to get support from the communities, which we’ve had spectacular support for the last 15 years that I’ve been doing this.”

Blevins says the live music industry has basically been stagnant since the pandemic began.

“We were the first ones to go down, again we’re looking like the last ones to come back up,” Blevins said. “As I watch the continued closures in Saskatchewan and other parts of Canada, it’s very troubling to us as this continues, and we’re just hoping for the best going into 2022.”

However, Blevins says she’s confident they’ll be back in 2022.

“We’re planning already for it,” Blevins said. “As soon as we made this decision — which again, I have to say was one of the toughest decisions that we’ve ever had to make — we started talking to agents, and we started talking to artist management to try and set up a lineup for 2022.

“We’re not going anywhere,” added Blevins.

Country Thunder festivals in the United States will be moving ahead as planned this year.

Tickets for this year’s festival will be honoured at the 2022 festival.

Country Thunder will be announcing further details on their Craven festival, such as the 2022 lineup, in the near future.