It was reported this week that the Route 91 Harvest Festival may return to Las Vegas in 2019 after a shooter attacked the festival in 2017, and country singer Luke Combs thinks the idea is a good one.
“It could be the kind of show that can be a show of solidarity,” he told Taste of Country. “You can’t let something like that dictate what you are going to do because that’s what those people want — they want people to remain in fear. I’m not going to be scared to live my life, so I think it’s a really good thing that it would go back.”
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Combs was one of the performers during the 2017 festival, and has since returned to the city to play.
“I think going back for the first time, for me, was a very cathartic thing and a very healing thing, because obviously nobody has good memories of that night,” he said. “But now, I think it would be a really awesome way to honor the victims and survivors because a lot of those people are from California and Las Vegas and Arizona and Nevada. I mean, anytime we go out there, there are always people that were there. Anytime we are on the west coast, there is somebody — and even multiple people — who were at the show.”
Officials from event promoter Live Nation confirmed that the company is planning to bring back the festival next year, and Chief Operating Officer of Country Nation Julie Matway echoed that news this week during XLIVE, a live events conference.
“Route 91 Harvest here in Las Vegas is one of my kids,” Matway said, via trade publication Amplify. “I am looking forward to how and when we are going to bring that back. We are working hard on that. Hopefully we will get it online for 2019.”
After the shooting, Combs recalled the tragic evening while speaking on the TODAY Show. The singer was on his tour bus with fellow performer Jake Owen when they decided to go watch Jason Aldean, who was onstage at the time of the attack.
“We were actually on stage when it happened,” he said, via CMT.com. “You didn’t know if it was an attack that was targeted at the festival, or if it was some kind of violence going on that happened to be close to the festival.”
The North Carolina native added that he didn’t want the shooting to affect his plans to perform.
“I don’t want to be scared, or put any shows of mine on hold, because I feel like that’s what this person wants to happen,” he explained. “He wants everybody to be scared and be afraid. And obviously we need to be strong in times like this, and there’s a place for us to be sad and grieve together and help each other out.
“But at the same time, we need to be able to move forward and not let something like this affect our daily lives,” Combs continued. “Even though it’s ruined a lot of people’s lives.”
Photo Credit: Getty / Andrew Chin
