The Huntington Library Cancels New Year’s Eve Celebration Out of Concerns Surrounding COVID-19

The Huntington Library has canceled its New Year’s Eve at The Huntington event that had been scheduled for December 31, according to a spokesperson.

“Due to increasing concerns surrounding COVID-19 and its variants, and with a cautious eye toward the health of audiences and artists, The Huntington has made the incredibly difficult decision to cancel its New Year’s Eve celebration,” spokesperson Thea Page told Pasadena Now.

The event was to have been held indoors.

The evening was to have featured music inspired by B.B. King and Chuck Berry performed by Pasadena’s MUSE/IQUE. A pre-performance reception was to have offered viewing of original Bill Graham Fillmore Auditorium concert posters from San Francisco’s golden age of rock. The post-concert party was to have been timed to mark the New Year in New York’s Times Square, at 9 p.m. Pacific time.

The cancelation is “heartbreaking news,” Page said.

MUSE/IQUE had “worked tirelessly to create a bright musical celebration that would bring people together and send us into 2022 on a high note,” she said.

On Sunday, the Music Center in Los Angeles announced it had canceled its invitation-only-audience event in DTLA to celebrate Countdown to 2022 on New Year’s Eve.

The celebration will instead be produced as a broadcast-only event available on Fuse and on Grand Park’s YouTube channel beginning at 11 p.m., New Year’s Eve, according to Music Center spokeswoman Lisa Ducore.

The COVID-19-prompted change was made in consultation with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to protect the health and safety of the public, performers, crew and staff, Ducore said.