SEATTLE — Festival lineup announcements keep rolling in, with Watershed country music fest the latest to unfurl its 2022 slate.
Washington's premier country bash returns to the Gorge Amphitheatre July 29-31, headlined by Miranda Lambert, Kane Brown and polarizing star Morgan Wallen. Three-day passes start at $225 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Feb. 11.
Brown is fresh off rockin' Climate Pledge Arena, while Lambert earned critical praise with last year's stripped-down pandemic album, "The Marfa Tapes," written and recorded with singer-songwriters Jack Ingram and Jon Randall.
Fans sniffed out Wallen's inclusion months ago, after Nashville's most controversial star announced a tour stop at RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheatre in Ridgefield, Clark County, with a conspicuous gap in his schedule around Watershed's expected dates.
Just weeks after releasing his highly anticipated double album "Dangerous" last year, video surfaced of Wallen drunkenly using a racial slur, prompting a wave of backlash that saw him shut out (in varying degrees) from award shows and having his songs removed from radio and streaming playlists.
The firestorm didn't stop "Dangerous" from becoming the biggest country album of the year, spending 10 weeks atop the Billboard 200 chart. Criticism of Wallen and the industry's response was renewed when he performed at Nashville's hallowed Grand Ole Opry last month, turning up the heat on conversations around race in a genre that hasn't exactly been the most welcoming to Black artists. Wallen issued an apology letter and told "Good Morning America" last summer he used the slur in a "playful" manner.
"I was around some of my friends, and we just ... we say dumb stuff together," Wallen said on the show. "And it was — in our minds, it's playful ... that sounds ignorant, but it — that's really where it came from ... and it's wrong."
A spokesperson for Watershed declined to comment on the decision to book Wallen.
At any rate, Wallen, Lambert and Brown will be joined by Jordan Davis, Chase Rice, Jake Owen, Watershed regular Michael Ray, singer/reality show star Jessie James Decker, Dylan Scott, Lauren Alaina and a host of bright up-and-comers like Tenille Townes and Runaway June.
Also on deck: Jameson Rodgers, Locash, Hailey Whitters, Caylee Hammack, Tenille Arts, Callista Clark and Dee Jay Silver.
Last summer Watershed, which typically attracts upward of 25,000 fans, became the state's first major music festival to return during the pandemic; at the time, it did not impose mask or vaccination requirements, nor did the state require them. Grant County public health officials linked more than 200 COVID-19 cases to fans who attended the three-day music and camping festival.
In the subsequent weeks, vaccine or negative test requirements became the new normal at concerts and festivals across the country. This year, Shedders must provide proof of full vaccination or a negative test result dated within 72 hours of arrival.
Washington's Department of Health cited cases traced to Watershed and the Bass Canyon electronic festival (also at the Gorge) and several county fairs when Gov. Jay Inslee announced mask requirements for large outdoor gatherings in September. At the time, neither state nor Grant County health officials could provide specific case numbers linked to Gorge concerts other than Watershed, with a Grant County spokesperson citing a backlog of uninvestigated cases amid the delta surge.
