To all our friends of the festival.
As you by now can probably guess, due to the unthinkable and heartbreaking devastation to Hope Town, the 7th annual Combustion Music Hope Town Music Festival has been cancelled.
I have spent most of the last 4 days, as many of you, glued to the weather channel and internet, trying my best to wrap my head around the extent of the damage.
Unfortunately, the more I learn, the more photos and communications I get, the worse the news seems to be.…..almost every building on the island is either gone or severely damaged. Many injured, but thankfully no deaths on Hope Town.
The community is tight and working together, but currently the focus is on evacuating those who remained on the island, as there is no power, and limited shelter, food and water.
People have been awesome, and we have tons of friends and supporters who have reached out and volunteered to help however they can… our festival has had enough of an impact on the island that people on the island are looking to us for help, and people on the mainland are drawn to the cause…my hope is to connect the dots!!
If you’ve been there you know….Hope Town is a magical place…a little slice of paradise in the Atlantic, where people lived together in harmony with nature...and now it is hurting, and they need our help.
To that end, I am asking all of you who were planning on going to support the music and the island, to continue to do so. We will be getting out news very soon of some relief concerts that are planned in Nashville for the upcoming weeks, as the outpouring of support from Nashville and the music community has been awesome. Also, we have set ups a Go FUND ME account where 100% of what we raise will go to the Hope Town Fire and Rescue Dept to help with the huge challenge of restoring some sense of normalcy.
These are gut check times for sure, and there is certainly no lack of need all over the world…..but we are asking that you give all you can to this place that has brought so much joy to so many. Hope Town will never be the same, but with all our help it will be back!
Please head to our GoFundMe page to donate.
Thank you all very much,
Chris Farren
