The Lancaster Roots & Blues festival — which had returned in 2024 after a yearlong hiatus in 2023 — will not return in 2025.
Rich Ruoff, the festival's founder and operator, said that he wanted to return the festival to its tradition of being held in the late winter.
"The reality is, for a festival like this, we're up against ... outdoor concerts, going on vacations," Ruoff said. "And so it becomes a much more competitive atmosphere."
Lancaster Roots & Blues is slated to return Feb. 27-28 and March 1, 2026. The festival was held in late September in 2024, early July in 2022 and mid October in 2021. There was not a festival in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, or in 2023, due to lack of funding. Prior to 2020, the festivals were held in February or March.
"My initial instincts on that (time frame) were not wrong," Ruoff said. But, by the time he made the decision to revert back to a late-winter festival, he had run out of time to produce a festival for this year, Ruoff said.
The scope of 2026's festival, including the number of performers or venues the festival will see, is not yet clear. "Super Early Bird" tickets are currently on sale, with three-day general admission tickets currently costing $99 and three-day VIP tickets costing $199.
Ruoff won't know if the festival will be larger or smaller than previous years, citing the need to find an investor or owner to give financial funding toward the festival.
Ruoff has been looking for an investor for the festival since 2022, when he told LNP|LancasterOnline that ticket sales had been low, and that the future of the 2023 festival was uncertain.
Lancaster Roots & Blues has run into financial trouble before.
A 2019 investigation by LNP found that at least 20 people and vendors reported problems getting paid for work at Roots & Blues. In 2017, Ruoff suffered two heart attacks, and shortly after, Claudia, his wife, was diagnosed with brain cancer. Claudia died in early 2020.
In 2021, Ruoff told LNP he had paid those debts from 2019.
In 2022, Ruoff again struggled to pay artists. National artists were paid, but local acts and venues were still owed money.
Last year, the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority filed a debt collection summons in Lancaster County Court against Ruoff for nearly $9,500 in expenses he incurred during the 2022 festival.
The authority filed the writ on Oct. 24. The last filing in the case indicated Ruoff was served the writ on Nov. 13.
Though the amount wasn’t specified in the writ, the authority’s executive director told LNP| the amount after it was filed. The amount was expected to increase with late fees.
The director said it was the first time the authority had to go to court to collect a debt, but that it was obligated to do so because it is a public entity.
Ruoff told LNP in late October that he was aware of the debt and was working on a plan.
LNP reporter Dan Nephin contributed to this report.
