No Santa Fe Bandstand in 2020, Nonprofit Outside In to Fold

In a Facebook post today, Santa Fe Bandstand organizers announced that the annual summer event, which brings together dozens of acts from near and far for months of free shows on the Plaza, has been canceled this year. This follows yesterday's news that both the Santa Fe Opera and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival would not have 2020 seasons.

"The truth is, we really lost a ton of sponsorship support," says Michael Dellheim, executive director of Outside In, the nonprofit that oversees the Bandstand. That organization's day-to-day mission is to bring music to the homebound and incarcerated through instruments, and Dellheim says the Bandstand's cancellation will hit affect those programs.

"The sad fact is, Outside In will be bankrupt by the end of the summer," Dellheim tells SFR. "Our regular mission is shut down as well. We just can't go anywhere anymore, so we can't seek funding for programming. We're done. It took us out. We're a corona victim."

According to Dellheim, as concerns over COVID-19 mounted, organizers pivoted toward hosting an all-local series this year. It would have been the same eight weeks of shows with two performances per show night, but after the Santa Fe Opera canceled—in addition to government mandates about continued social distancing if and when the state reopens more widely—he says he knew it was time.

"We read the governor's proposed plan to reopen, and it was going to be limited to something like 100 people at 6 feet apart with masks," he explains, "and there was just no way we could get into that kind of policing, especially on the Plaza."

Dellheim took over Outside In, which also celebrated its 25th year of operations this year, and the Santa Fe Bandstand in 2012 when the founder of both, David Lescht, died unexpectedly.

"This would have been my ninth season," he says. "I only got into this because David passed away and I was temporarily trying to fill a small gap. I have no background in music and events, and I did my best to fill the void, but now that this is all coming to an end, I'm looking forward to reinventing myself. But we're going to miss our summer gatherings."

Dellheim adds there are no plans to take the Bandstand online, but that he believes there will be some form of music events on the Plaza again someday.