Shambhala Music Festival is not offering refunds on tickets for this year鈥檚 event, which is still scheduled to run in July.

Instead, in a statement posted Monday on Facebook, the festival said pre-paid tickets will be redeemable for the 2021, 2022 and 2023 events if it is forced to postpone this summer鈥檚 scheduled dates due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

It also clarified its position on not offering refunds in response to a reader comment:

鈥淪hambhala Music Festival works hard to create a unique experience that reflects ShambhaLove. We do this by avoiding anything that might water down the true representation of our community and therefore do not accept any corporate sponsorship.

鈥淏y doing this we take on all of the of operating costs that might have otherwise been taken care of by corporate sponsorship funds. In addition to this, like most other music festivals, we have significant overheads that make refunding tickets impossible for us.鈥�

A spokesperson for the festival declined an interview request by the Star.

The annual electronic music event remains scheduled to run July 24 to 27 at a farm near Salmo. It had previously been held in August, but moved up the date for 2020 to avoid potential disruptions due to .

Kaslo Jazz Festival Etc., the region鈥檚 other main annual music event, is still scheduled to run July 31 to Aug. 2. The Tiny Lights Festival, which is held in nearby Ymir, has meanwhile postponed this year鈥檚 event to June 2021.

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