Sugarland has pulled out of the Cavendish Beach Music Festival due to a scheduling conflict.
Kevin Meyer, president of festival promoter Meridian Entertainment Group, said Thursday he wasn't at liberty to say exactly why the band cannot perform in Cavendish but work is well underway to finding a replacement.
"It's not unusual within the industry for people to have conflicts in scheduling when certain things occur. They could be that career opportunities that come up, personal reasons, whatever, but unfortunately that's the situation we have,'' Meyer said.
Sugarland was scheduled to headline the Saturday, July 7 show. Rascal Flatts and Dean Brody are still confirmed for the Sunday, July 7, performance.
Meyer said it this were a tour they would simply have rescheduled the Sugarland show.
"The only challenge for us is it's a festival. Unfortunately, we're on three days in July and our only option is to look at rescheduling (Sugarland) for next year.''
Meyer said he was informed about a week ago that there was a scheduling issue. Several discussions ensued but they couldn't find a way around the problem and Sugarland had to pull out.
Meyer said they didn't announce Sugarland wasn't coming because they were hoping to wait until they had a replacement first.
And, organizers were getting very close to making a second major announcement. Rascal Flatts, Dean Brody and Sugarland were part of the initial announcement but a headliner was still needed for the Friday night show. Now, Meridian needs at least two headline acts.
"Ironically, we were just putting the finishing touches on most of (the entire lineup). Our plan was to come out with the rest of it and this happened and kind of knocked us back a few days in our process.''
Meyer said there will be an announcement "in the very near future'' on those big names. When pressed for hints, he said there was some interesting chatter on the festival's Facebook page.
Fans were throwing out names like Garth Brooks, Jimmy Buffett, Miranda Lambert, George Strait, the Zac Brown Band and Kenny Chesney. Any one of those acts would sell a lot of tickets.
Meyer said an act doesn't necessarily have to be on tour to be available, especially considering the great word of mouth the four-year-old festival has been getting on the country circuit.
"Some people have it blocked off for vacation and sometimes they'll consider (a trip to P.E.I.) part of a vacation. There are a lot of variables that go into it and all you can do is start making calls and talk it through with agents and managers and see what you end up with.''
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There will be no refunds actually. If you read the Festival policies then you would know this: Performers, programs, dates and times are subject to change without notice