BUKU Music + Art Project Canceled For 2023, Maybe Forever

NEW ORLEANS (CelebrityAccess) — Organizers for the New Orleans-based Buku Music + Art Project music festival announced that the event has been canceled for 2023 with no immediate plans to revive the fest in the foreseeable future.

In a post on the festival’s website, organizers did not provide a specific reason for the cancellation but noted that the “current model of BUKU needs to take a break.”

The festival, which was founded in 2012 by Winter Circle Productions, hosted a multi-genre lineup of major touring artists and local New Orleans favorites.

Like much of the live music world, the festival was impacted by COVID-19 and forced to cancel in 2020 and 2021 but returned last year with a lineup that included Tame Impala, Suicide Boys, Alison Wonderland, Tyler, The Creator, Porter Robinson, Glass Animals, and Baby Keem, among others.

Festival promoter Winter Circle also stages the Hangout Music and has not made any announcements regarding the status of that event.

The full statement on BUKU’s cancellation:

It’s time for a change…

From day one, BUKU was created to be something different…a gritty yet colorful event celebrating the progressive subculture of New Orleans. It became a homecoming for the most amazing bunch of beautiful weirdos ever assembled and in 10 years, we accomplished exactly what we set out to do: we created a community…a community that truly matters.

But times are changing… and the current model of BUKU needs to take a break. For a myriad of reasons, we’ve decided the festival will not take place in March 2023. We don’t know exactly what the future will look like – and that’s okay as there is freedom in the unknown – but we know that we will gather again some day, in some form, bursting with creativity and purpose.

To our Bukrewe, including fans, staff, vendors, local artists, and the city of New Orleans: we adore you. the DMs & emails we’ve gotten over the years say it all…you got engaged at BUKU, you met all of your friends at BUKU, you were encouraged to start a business at BUKU, BUKU was your last show before going into active duty, you fell in love at BUKU, you raged at BUKU, and you connected with a community free of judgement and full of encouragement at BUKU.

This isn’t “goodbye” – this is “see y’all down the road.” Until then, keep the BUKU spirit alive, keep visiting New Olreans, keep creating and keep loving big.

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