Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys have canceled a performance at the Rhythm and Roots Festival in Charlestown, Rhode Island, over Labor Day weekend. A statement by organizers announced that the lead Cajun musician contracted COVID-19.

Numerous Louisiana-based acts are set to perform at the festival, including John “Papa” Gros, Honey Island Swamp Band, Cowboy Mouth and Cedric Watson and Bijou among many others.

The Rhythm and Roots Festival was founded in 1997 as an outgrowth of of the  Cajun & Bluegrass Festival at the Stepping Stone Ranch in Escoheag, Rhode Island, run by Chuck Wentworth and Franklin Zawacki. When they parted ways, Wentworth and partner Mary Doub created the Rhythm & Roots Festival under the management of Lagniappe Productions. Wentworth expressed concern that the festival might be permanently discontinued during the worst of the pandemic, but management of the festival was transferred this year to Goodworks Entertainment, based in Hartford, Connecticut.

The Providence Journal reports that “the heart of this festival may well be the dance tent, which shelters a big wooden dance floor.  There’s Cajun and zydeco music all day long (and well into the night).” The festival draws upwards of 5,000 attendees per day.

Riley was the subject of an article in the April 2022 edition of OffBeat by Dan Willging. The story focused on the emergence of Riley’s young children as a new Cajun band that performed at the 2022 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.