Rest In Peace, KAABOO Texas (2019-2019).

Following Virgin’s Acquisition Of Its Parent Company, There Are Currently ‘No Plans’ For A 2020 Follow-Up To KAABOO Texas’ Tepid May 2019 Debut.

Back in May of this year, we reviewed the first installment of KAABOO Texas. Highly anticipated, the first-year festival — an import from California — featured many interesting aspects and an AT&T Stadium-hosted lineup featuring The Killers, Sting and Kid Rock (among others), but faced a litany of issues and more than its fair share of bad press.

Nonetheless, we were assured the festival would return in 2020.

Well, no such luck.

As of this moment, KAABOO Texas 2020 ain’t in the cards.

On Monday, we noticed that the @kaabootexas handle had been abandoned across all social mediums, but our requests for comment went unanswered — until Wednesday, when we were directed to a Pollstar report about how Virgin Fest (the festival operations subsidiary of the Virgin Group) had acquired complete ownership of the KAABOO brand, which includes events outside of San Diego and in the Cayman Islands along with its North Texas product.

Today, Central Track can confirm that there are no plans for future KAABOO festivals in North Texas.

In an email, Virgin Fest CEO Jason Felts, who joined as KAABOO’s chief brand officer in 2016, writes: “[T]here are no plans in place for a followup to KAABOO Texas under the new ownership.”

This news comes despite previous reassurances that KAABOO Texas boasted a 10-year agreement on its continued operation in Arlington.

It’s possible there may be life down the road for KAABOO Texas. Dallas real estate developer and KAABOO Texas investor Bill Hutchinson tells Central Track that the fest’s full future is still pending on meetings scheduled for later this month between the California-based festival promoters and representatives of the Jerry Jones Family, which also invested in the event.

Says Hutchinson: “The dust will have to settle before we can see a path forward.”

Representatives from the Dallas Cowboys have yet to respond to requests for comment.