Betty Who Reveals E. coli Infection Forced Her Out of Broadway Festival Appearance
Betty Who has shared that an E. coli infection kept her from performing at The Festival, a Broadway-celebrating music event in New York's Hudson Valley, over the weekend of August 14–16.
The 34-year-old Australian singer and actor, born Jessica Newhash, broke the news in an Instagram Story on Tuesday, August 18, writing that she was on day nine of the infection — and describing it as possibly the sickest she has ever been, Billboard reported.
Betty Who had flown to New York on Thursday, August 13, intending to push through the illness. Upon landing, she knew something was seriously wrong and needed a doctor. She later returned home, where the E. coli diagnosis was confirmed. According to the Cleveland Clinic, E. coli refers to a group of bacteria that can cause infections in the gut, urinary tract and other parts of the body.
The Festival, which has been dubbed "Coachella for Broadway," ran from Friday, August 14 to Sunday, August 16 at the Hutton Brickyards in Ulster County, New York. Betty Who had been booked for a substantial role across the weekend: a main-stage appearance on night one, a late-night campfire sing-along, and the premiere of a new musical called Love Somebody, for which she wrote both the lyrics and the music.
She missed all of it. In her Instagram Story, she credited the festival's organisers with taking good care of her and reprogramming all her material at the last minute after she had to withdraw.
For fans, the cancellation is a frustrating twist in what has been a busy creative stretch for the artist. Betty Who made her Broadway debut in 2023, playing Persephone — queen of the underworld — in the Tony-winning musical Hadestown. Her most recent full-length album was 2022's Big!, followed by the 2025 EP Love Yourself. The Love Somebody musical premiere would have marked a further step into theatrical writing, building on the crossover between her recording career and stage work.
There is no word yet on whether the Love Somebody premiere will be rescheduled. Betty Who has not indicated when she expects to recover, though being nine days into the infection at the time of her post suggests she is well into the typical course of the illness.
The artist, who uses she/they pronouns, did not specify how she contracted the infection. E. coli infections are commonly linked to contaminated food or water, though they can also arise in other ways.
