INDUSTRY UPDATE
US: SEATTLE
Julie Mullins
Amid many audio show cancellations and resultant complications in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis comes some good news: A brand-new audio show has been announced: the Pacific Audio Fest in Seattle. The presenters are Show Director Lou Hinkley, founder of Daedalus Audio, and Show Manager Gary Gill, who is also founder and director of the Capital Audio Fest. (CAF’s end-of-October 2020 show, its 10th, will probably be canceled due to COVID-19, Gill told Stereophile, but a final decision has not yet been made.) Per a recent press release, Pacific Audio Fest’s inauguration is slated for August 6–8, 2021, allowing time—hopefully—for the pandemic to pass. That timing, though, is coincidental: Hinkley and Gill have been planning to present the show in that time frame for about a year, since well before COVID-19 became an issue.
A recent press release says the show is intended to serve not just the Pacific Northwest but a broad West Coast swath, from Los Angeles to Vancouver. At the time of this writing, venue negotiations were being finalized, with an announcement to follow once the contract is signed with the venue—within a couple of weeks, Hinkley said.
It’s a bold move to launch a new show, even in favorable times, let alone in times like these.
