New Orleans, a city long known for its love of whiskey (home of the Sazerac cocktail, after all), faces tough news this week.

New Orleans Bourbon Festival, an event scheduled for August 2021, has now been postponed to March 2022. The event was originally supposed to take place in 2020, but saw its original date slip due to the original onset of the COVID Pandemic.

The summer reschedule date has moved once more as city planners, event staff and the organizations facilitating the Bourbon Festival came to grips with the reality of the COVID Delta variant, and the lack of community support.

The #NewOrleans #Bourbon Festival scheduled for later this month has been postponed until next March. City officials insisted on proof of vaccination or negative COVID test and masking as a condition for granting the festival’s permit. A survey of ticket holders found… (1/2)

— Mark Gillespie 😷 (@whiskycast) August 7, 2021

In order for the festival to continue as planned, City Officials made it clear that vaccination cards, negative COVID tests and masks would be required for Bourbon to continue flowing. In a statement made on the festival’s website, the founders and facilitators pointed out that they had polled the ticket holders for the event. 60% of ticket holders responded, and of that sum, half stated they would rather skip the event than comply with a mask mandate, negative test, or display of vaccination card.

Nearly half said they would not attend the festival under those conditions…from the festival’s official announcement:
“We cannot find a way to satisfy everyone when the emotional nature of vaccinations and masks are pushed into the mix.” (2/2)

— Mark Gillespie 😷 (@whiskycast) August 7, 2021

It’s a fascinating angle, and certainly an unexpected outcome, but as a result of the ticket holder survey, the event has been moved. In March 2022, the New Orleans Bourbon Festival will hopefully open its door, with COVID safely behind the event and its organizers. Understandably, not everyone was thrilled or agreed with the outcome. Some respondents suggested attending other festivals where presumably stricter COVID controls were in place, and residents were more open to the conditions proposed by the New Orleans officials.

Be smart and careful and go to Dublin Whiskey Live instead

— Hank Barnes (@Barnes_Hank) August 7, 2021

Others were less subtle in their disdain:

That’s embarrassing. It’s too bad they couldn’t host it anyways and just keep the knuckle draggers on the outside of the gate.

— Rick vanRavenhorst (@vanrrick) August 7, 2021

While some mused it was New Orleans nestling in the South that was to blame:

Not surprised considering the local.

— Greg Butler (@butlerb) August 8, 2021

The continued spread of COVID continues to surge in the United States. It’s likely to be some time before large scale whiskey related gatherings in the country, although bourbon drinkers can rest their fears on running out of hard spirits. Operations like Buffalo  Trace and Jim Beam aren’t slowing production, and there’s plenty of great whiskey to enjoy from the safety of home while the fight against the virus continues.

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