In an email announcement sent to previous attendees of LOCKN’, founders Peter Shapiro & David Frey have announced that the popular festival is changing weekends. Formerly held the weekend after Labor Day, the festival will now be held two weeks earlier, the weekend before Labor Day. This year’s dates for LOCKN’ will be August 25-28, 2016.

The message sent to previous attendees explains that conflicting NASCAR and college football events, as well as post-Labor Day school schedules, were the main motivations for the date switch. You can read the full text below:

Dear LOCKN’ ‘Lumni,

We are writing with important news regarding the future of LOCKN’ Festival.

LOCKN’ 2016 is moving to the last weekend of August, 8/25 – 8/28. The festival will take place on this same weekend, hopefully for many years to come.

There are several good reasons why we have decided to change the date.

Since LOCKN’ began in 2013, the weekend after Labor Day has proved to be a challenging time for many people to attend. Many of our attendees have children and the school schedule in September has made attending LOCKN’ difficult. We have also heard from many attendees, including artists, that their work schedules after Labor Day make it difficult for them to join us at the festival.

Holding LOCKN’ on the same weekend as the annual nearby NASCAR race and college football games has put stress on local government agencies, emergency service providers, equipment suppliers, and the labor force necessary to put on such large events.

By moving LOCKN’ to a weekend when these major events are not occurring, LOCKN’ attendees will have easier access to hotel rooms and RV rentals, both of which have been significant challenges in past years due to the large number of visitors to the region during these events.

Finally, after an absence of almost 20 years, horse racing will return to Oak Ridge this fall. The new date will also help the owners of the track (from whom we rent the festival site), to have more time to prepare the track and land for horse racing.

We believe that the weekend change is great news for the future of LOCKN’, but realize that for some of our loyal LOCKN’ ‘Lumni, it may be inconvenient or impossible to attend on the new date. We sincerely apologize to those who cannot join us this year, and hope that they will be a part of the festival in the future. For those ‘Lumni, we are offering full refunds (including fees) between now and March 11.

We will be announcing the artist lineup soon, and we think you will be excited when you see who is playing LOCKN’ this year.

We hope to see you this summer and thank you for your support.

Peter Shapiro & David Frey
Founders, LOCKN’ Festival

The festival typically reveals their lineup with an artist-by-artist roll out, though they had already started by this time last year. We’re certainly looking forward to seeing who will perform this year!