Stevie Nicks Cancels 2021 Festival Performances: ‘I Am Still Being Extremely Cautious’ Over COVID-19

Stevie Nicks sent out a post on social media on Tuesday announcing that she has cancelled her remaining 2021 live performances, a schedule that included festival slots at BottleRock Napa Valley, both weekends of Austin City Limits and Jazz Aspen Festival. She was also part of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which was cancelled earlier this week due to COVID-19 concerns.

The decision came about, Nicks explains, linked to the return and spike of COVID-19 cases — something the legendary singer, 73, has been vocal about for much of the pandemic. In Aug. 2020, for example, she went public with a plea urging people to wear masks to help combat the rise in cases.

Striking a similar tone, her latest message reads as follows:

These are challenging times with challenging decisions that need to be made. I want everyone to be safe and healthy and the rising Covid cases should be of concern to all of us. While I’m vaccinated, at my age, I am still being extremely cautious and for that reason I have decided to skip the 5 performances I had planned for 2021. Because singing and performing have been my whole life, my primary goal is to keep healthy so I can continue singing for the next decade or longer. I’m devastated and I know the fans are disappointed, but we will look towards a brighter 2022.

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— Stevie Nicks (@StevieNicks) August 10, 2021

As much as we all want to return to “normal” as far as live concerts are concerned, recent weeks have brought similar complications. Lynyrd Skynyrd, for example, cancelling dates due to guitarist Rickey Medlocke testing positive for COVID-19. Fall Out Boy pulled out of a few dates on the Hella Mega Tour with Green Day and Weezer due to a positive test in the band’s camp, and so on.