La Nina puts a dampener on the Autumn Festival season
The extreme wet weather conditions caused by La Nina seems to be claiming casualties as quickly as any pandemic with a string of high profile and extremely loved festivals being forced into cancellation due to the excessive amount of rain falling which is causing major flooding along Australia’s East Coast.
With many festivals postponed from summer to autumn due to Covid restrictions being reinstated, it seems this latest blow is making organisers take the cancellation path, so they can refund and start from a fresh slate and plan their next event…hopefully. For some of the smaller shows, this latest round of disruptions does signify defeat. Festivals are not cheap to fund, especially the little ones, and some unfortunately just won't have the financial ability to try again.
Some like Format Festival & Return To Rio have chosen to roll the dice again and just postpone, but the latest victims of the cancellations are some of the most popular festivals, including Wollongong’s Yours & Owls Festival and newcomers Wildflower & The Squeeze Freshtival.
All the cancelled events have released statements explaining the plight they face of trying to run these events safely in these conditions, as well as apologizing to ticket holders, staff and all those affected. Reading them, your heart hurts for them, knowing how horrible they must feel being forced into this position.
With things only just starting to get back to normal from arguably one of the hardest hit industries during the unprecedented ordeal of the last three years, one has to wonder how much more Australian Music can take ?
“It is with great sadness that mother nature had other plans and our upcoming Wildflower at Roche Estate in the Hunter Valley is cancelled this Saturday 2 April due to the ongoing weather event impacts which have rendered the venue substantially waterlogged and unsafe to prepare and execute the event. After an inspection today, it was determined that the extensive amount of moisture already in the ground has made it unsafe to commence erecting the stage and supporting infrastructure necessary for the event to proceed as scheduled.
This is a huge disappointment to us given the years of planning involved with Wildflower and the challenges we have all faced during the pandemic – we all desperately wanted this show to proceed. However, the safety of our crew, bands and audience is absolutely paramount. We share your disappointment, and understand it is frustrating that this happens”.
The Wildflower Team
Return to Rio FESTIVAL ANNOUNCEMENT:
“We
can't believe we're actually having to write these
words. With broken hearts, we need to
reschedule the Halloween Weekender again from
13-15 May 22 to 28-30 Oct 22 due to horrific
flood damage to Del Rio Resort and the high
health risk of E.coli associated with camping too
soon after a flood. We are absolutely gutted we
can't deliver the show in May we've put blood,
sweat and tears into, but everyone's health and
safety has to come first.”
