Despite several cancellations, Hopscotch Music Festival reeled in an estimated 20,000 people last weekend, according to Grayson Currin, alumnus and Hopscotch co-director. 

Hopscotch, which finished its fourth consecutive festival this weekend, saw several artist cancellations that were quickly patched. Currin said it is often difficult to gauge how many artists might cancel a festival and this year there happened to be several, including headliner Big Boi.

“When you are dealing with almost 200 bands, inevitably things are going to come up last minute,” Currin said. “It’s a huge unknown for us when things like that happen.”

But the directors of Hopscotch worked quickly to replace acts at the last minute.

Big Boi, the festival’s original headliner, canceled more than a month prior to the festival and will play a make up show in Raleigh on Saturday, Sept. 21. Holy Ghost! and A-Trak performed in place of the Outkast-famous rapper. 

San Francisco experimental group Sal Mineo canceled its Thursday performance but was replaced by Xiu Xiu. Rapper Action Bronson canceled on Friday but was replaced with grammy-winning Big Daddy Kane. Ex-Cults canceled for Saturday but was replaced by Hopscotch veteran Spider Bags. 

Currin said he accepted that artists are still normal people and, of course, conflicts arise.

“The simple answer is that people have lives,” Currin said. “People have families, people have health conditions and jobs and these things are beyond the limits of any contract or confirmation form.”

But what the festival lacked in performers’ reliability, it made up for in venue planning and use. Currin said he was especially pleased with the use of Memorial Auditorium.

“We’ve used Memorial Auditorium for two years now and I think the Local Natives show was probably the first proper rock ‘n’ roll concert we put on there,” Currin said. “It was kind of cool to see that space kind of come into its own as a concert venue for Hopscotch.”

Currin said Local Natives used the accouterments of Memorial Auditorium to create an indie-rock show that was still appropriate for the concert hall setting.

Kennedy Theatre was a small but fitting venue addition this year that Currin said he was ultimately pleased with.

“I think it’s a really perfect 200-person rock club that no one has ever used in that way,” Currin said. “I can’t wait to use it again.”

Hopscotch, which was previously owned by the Independent Weekly, was sold twice after City of Roses Newspaper Company acquired the Indy Aug. 2012. The majority of the festival was subsequently sold to Hopscotch founder Greg Lowenhagen.

Currin, who is the music editor for the Indy, said he opted not to purchase shares in the festival because it was a conflict of interest, and that the sale hardly affected how the festival ran.

“[The sale] has changed [the festival] on a few levels, but from the outside I don’t think many people would notice,” Currin said.

Currin said the most noticeable difference following new ownership was that volunteers, not Indy employees, checked wristbands at venues. 

Advertising and coverage at the Indy have changed most noticeably from the ownership change, according to Currin. 

Regardless of ownership, Currin said he expects to see the festival carry on another year, and hopefully grow. 

“I think Hopscotch is aiming up for its fifth anniversary,” Currin said.