Jackson County fairgrounds officials say cancellation of the 2024 Rogue Music Fest had already been in the works before a Friday announcement on social media.

The Expo announced Friday evening on Facebook: “After careful consideration, we will not be holding the Rogue Music Fest in 2024.” The response from social-media users resulted in comments on the post being turned off.

For its debut in 2023, the music festival drew at least 10,000 attendees. Headlining artists included Eric Church, Carrie Underwood and The Cadillac Three. Initial reports found the two-day event popular with attendees; then-fairgrounds manager Helen Baker declared the event “a great success.”

Fairgrounds officials this week said the event was costly to put on and not feasible for the local venue to do annually.

Interim fairgrounds manager Rob Holmbeck said Monday that the event had been canceled for the coming year due to logistics but that, going forward, it could be considered a biennial event. Holmbeck contacted the Rogue Valley Times late Monday afternoon and added that the Expo had “incurred a $2.2 million loss on the event.”

Holmbeck said fairgrounds officials wanted to ensure they weren’t sacrificing other events that are already well attended, such as the summer fair and the Wild Rogue Pro Rodeo. 

“We already knew it wasn’t happening, and we were getting phone calls and emails. We just wanted to put it out there so everyone knew for sure,” Holmbeck said.

“Kind of like ripping off the band-aid and saying, ‘We’re not doing it, for sure, for this year,'” he said. “We wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page, even though it was a hard thing to finally say out loud.”

Immediate Jackson County Fair Board past president J.B. Dimick, who served on the board for 15 years before being termed out in December, said the fairgrounds is in “a very transitional period” and the music festival was financially difficult to justify.

“We’re not transiting from bad to good, or from good to bad. … The Jackson County Exposition Park has a core business model, and the core business model is that our first and foremost responsibility is to put on a community celebration in the form of a county fair, to cater to the youth through 4H and FFA, to be a rental facility and to bring things to the community that are a benefit economically,” Dimick said Monday.

“The bottom line is, financially, with the cost of the kind of entertainers that need to walk out onto that stage, at this point it’s just not feasible. Eric Church was over $1 million. When you look at the economy of scale, how many people can really afford a ticket that expensive? As stewards of public money, it’s not OK for us to have a good time and plan a party for the community, but throw a bunch of money away at the same time.”

Dimick said Rogue Music Fest was “not a total loss” and had been a learning experience.

He said the fairgrounds is focused on securing a new manager. Fairgrounds board members had previously hired former Sacramento County fair director Pamela Fyock, who was set to begin work Jan. 1. County officials voiced concerns after learning Fyock had been dismissed from her position in 2022 following a pair of California state audits and later withdrew the job offer.

Baker stepped down in September after nine years. Dimick said he agreed to serve as chair of the hiring committee for recruitment of a new manager.

“We’ve got to get somebody in there, because what goes on as we move forward is going to be very dependent on who we choose to lead it,” Dimick said.

“We are fortunate in that we have commissioners and county staff who are very supportive. Most counties in the state of Oregon don’t have the kind of support we do. We’re very lucky.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct Pamela Fyock’s name.

This story has been updated to reflect the fact that the 2023 Rogue Music Fest lost $2.2 million, according to interim fairgrounds manager Rob Holmbeck.