Big Colour put back

Fans get refunds as showground venue lost

THOUSANDS of ticket holders to The Big Colour Festival have been refunded after the event was abruptly postponed.

The festival, based loosely off the Indian “festival of colours” holiday Holi, was meant to go ahead this Saturday at the Cairns Showground.

Live music, carnival rides and coloured chalk covering participants every hour was promised to the 12,000 ticket holders who had cleared their schedules and even booked flights and accommodation to attend. Instead they were given less than a fortnight’s notice that the event would not go ahead as planned.

The Big Colour Festival organiser Liril Dewanji said postponing the event was the only option after a dispute with the Cairns Show Association had left the festival without a venue.

“Within the span of a week finding a new venue didn’t seem feasible,” she said. “We had over 12,000 tickets sold. Quite a few people were upset.”

She said ticket holders had been refunded through Eventbrite, which has taken down its page selling The Big Colour Festival tickets.

“We’re looking at June 30 for the new festival,” she said.

Cairns musician Rob Bryant was booked to play this weekend’s event with his band Bigfoot Mafia, but has been left in the dark about what would happen next. He was only told the event would be postponed on Monday.

“It definitely was unexpected. We were looking forward to playing for the festival,” he said.

“We hope it can go ahead at the new venue and new date.”

A Cairns Regional Council spokeswoman said an initial inquiry had been made for hiring Fogarty Park for the festival, but no formal application had been received. A show association spokeswoman said an agreement could not be reached with the organiser.