Fredericton's Harvest festival headliner cancels

The Friday night headliners have cancelled for Fredericton's Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival.

Indie folk, Americana and rhythm and blues band Nathaniel Rateliff& the Night Sweats were scheduled to play at 10 p.m. onSept. 14 in the Moose Light Blues Tent.

Festival organizers say band members will be attending the funeral that day for their producer,Richard Swift, who died in early July at the age of 41 after a month-long illness.

Swift was also a musician who played with the Shins and the Black Keys.

He produced the Night Sweats' debut album, as well as its followup, Tearing at the Seams, released this year.

"My heart will be broken for a lifetime by Richard's passing and I need to be elsewhere this September to give him the send-off he deserves," Rateliff said in a statement to Harvest.

The band has committed to play at the 2019 festival, said Harvest.

"I promise we'll make it up to you next year," said Rateliff.

Festival organizers said they are as disappointed as the band and patrons, and they hope to make an announcement soon about a replacement, as well as about the procedure for anyone who wants a refund.

"This certainly isn't our first rodeo with headliner cancellations, and we're confident that we will once again deliver a top-notch act our patrons will be excited about," said programming director Brent Staeben.