One of the festivals we look forward to most each season is Arkansas's Wakarusa , a twelve-year-old camping, music and arts event atop Mulberry Mountain that brings a chilled-out festie vibe (the kind that exists in spades on the West Coast) to the conservative South. In recent years, it's grown and evolved into a serious bucket-list festival experience, thanks to broadening its musical offerings from the likes of String Cheese Incident, Thievery Corporation, Ben Harper, and STS9 to also include The Roots, Dilated Peoples, Chali 2NA, and prodigy Chance the Rapper in 2015; it's also added Burning Man-inspired art cars and a dedication to sustainability.

But just as it looked like all the stars had aligned for Wakarusa's bright future, a bombshell Facebook announcement fell to Earth, hurling accusations along the way:

Wakarusa's producer Pipeline Productions, which is also responsible for 2015's cancellations of Thunder on the Mountain, and Harvest Music Festival (which had recently merged with Phases of the Moon) has had a rough year. It is one of the few remaining independent festival producers in the industry, so it truly relies on its festivals' attendees and the smooth sailing of all operations to keep itself afloat.

Similar to the Gathering of the Vibes's current predicament, this "defiantly independent" labor of love requires a year off to recuperate from unforseen circumstances – and that means the festival community must band together to make sure it can return with flying colors. Organizers have urged us to remain positive: "We'll use it as our strength and inspiration to create an event better WAKA experience than is ever more magical." If we build a new Wakarusa in our minds, perhaps it will become a reality for us all in 2017.