Winter NAMM 2021 Cancelled
A virtual "interactive marketplace to connect buyers and sellers,” Believe In Music, will take its place.
Four months following the cancellation of the 2020 Summer NAMM show due to the coronavirus, it has been announced that the 2021 Winter NAMM show, its larger companion, has also been cancelled.
In its place, NAMM is setting up Believe In Music- “an interactive marketplace to connect buyers and sellers” – at BelieveInMusic.tv for the week of January 18, 2021.
“Given the current realities of the COVID-19 pandemic and the health and safety of NAMM members as our first priority, it is now clear there is no path forward for an in-person event in California, and we have made the difficult decision to cancel the 2021 NAMM Show,” read an announcement from the organization.
“While we are disappointed that we will not be able to gather our NAMM family in-person this January, we are reimagining how to connect all facets of the industry while benefiting those most deeply impacted with the launch of Believe in Music: The global gathering to unify and support the people who bring music to the world."
We'll certainly be watching how the cancellation of the annual guitar gear extravaganza - usually hosted at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California - affects the usually tightly scheduled rollout of new gear, which has already been thrown off by the absence of Summer NAMM.
Either way, we'll still be telling you about the latest in gear - as always - as soon as we hear about it!
“If there’s one common vision, it’s that as a global community, we believe in music," the statement from NAMM continued. "We believe in the future of music and in the future of our industry, and in this moment, we will unite and support music-makers around the world.”
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For more information on the Believe In Music show, head on over to namm.org.
Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com and GuitarPlayer.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.