Organizers of Rockabilly on the Route in Tucumcari, New Mexico, will take an indefinite break from the music festival starting in 2018 to reassess its future — including the possibility of taking it on the road.
Organizers on the Rockabilly on the Route official Facebook page posted Monday the 2017 festival on June 1-4 would be the “fifth and final year” of the event.
In a response to a question on the post, organizers wrote:
We have decided to take a break from the festival for now to pursue other paths. We are taking a year off from it and then deciding what to do next. It was not an easy decision as we love the festival and everybody that is a part of it but we want to explore some other avenues. We so look forward to seeing everyone at this years festival.
Simon Cantlon, one of the proprietors of Pink Flamingo Productions, which owns the rights to the festival, elaborated in a text Monday:
There is a possibility of ROR coming back in 2019 and we are going to figure that out during the hiatus. We want to take a step back, take a break from it and pursue some other projects that have been on the backburner but at the same time re-evaluate Rockabilly On The Route. We are open to so many possibilities of what to do with it next, we have long talked about taking ROR on the road and touring it along Route 66, for example. The festival is a success on many levels and is well loved and gets bigger every year, we look forward to having this years be the biggest and best one yet. The festival means a lot to us and we love that we have been able to raise money for the New Mexico Route 66 Museum and brought so many people into Tucucmari who are discovering it for the first time.
In short, Rockabilly on the Route may return, but that won’t be known until sometime next year, probably.
The city of Tucumcari also in July announced it would cut the size of 2017 festival funding by almost $22,000 because of a drop in motel-tax revenue, according to the Quay County Sun.
According to the Sun, Rockabilly on the Route drew more than 3,500 people during the 2016 festival. Over the years, the event drew dozens of rockabilly bands, including a few from faraway foreign countries such as Japan and the Netherlands.
(Image of the Rockabilly on the Route 2017 logo)
Not sure I can find a way to see this as good news, despite the tease that they may do something with it again in the future. Too bad.
I will say that, as I have never been able to attend due to distance, I would love to get to one if it were a traveling show….say, in Springfield, Ill during the Mother Road Festival?
You would draw a bigger crowd if you weren’t trying to compete with the all-out call out drag racing Albuquerque on the same weekend there were seven thousand in attendance for the 2016 all out call out drag race if you could move it a weekend befor or a weekend after I would bet your attendance would double even triple. Just saying
I attended Rockabilly on the Route last year in my hometown of Tucumcari, NM and I must say it was fantastic. I was sadden at the time to learn that Tucumcari would not be having them back this year. I hope this changes next year because I will definately plan to travel back home for this event. From the music to the dancers and rockabilly fashion it was a fun and exciting time and meeting up with old friends was a plus. Then with all the memorabilia, vendors and vintage car show there was so much to see. Only thing i would improve on would be the food vendors because there weren’t enough of them and the lines were way to long and because it gets super hot in Tucumcari maybe something for the kids young and old to cool off with and more sitting areas in the food area with shade perhaps.