WILL THERE BE A FALLS FESTIVAL?
FAMED LORNE EVENT STILL IN LIMBO:
MUSIC fans could be blocked from attending Falls Festival for a third consecutive year with organisers yet to release any details on the future of the Lorne event.
The organisers of Falls Festival and Meredith Music Festival are yet to make any detailed announcements on the immediate future of the popular events as the music industry continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic.
A statement on the Falls website says it will see festival-goers in 2021.
Falls Festival was cancelled in 2019 due to bushfire risk and did not go ahead in 2020 amid coronavirus restrictions.
Queenscliff Music Festival director Andrew Orvis said he was hopeful the popular borough festival would return in November, but said the changing climate of COVID-19 remained challenging for organisers.
Mr Orvis said in a normal year tickets would be on sale and organisers would be booking artists.
He said the festival was planning for its annual event this year, but uncertainty about how it could look in the face of changing climate of COVID-19 restrictions remained.
“At the moment we’re essentially now looking at what we can do, how can we do it, and coming up with some plans, there’s probably going to have to be 20 different plans,” he said. “We’ll be planning for the best and for the worst, and probably expect something in between.”
Mr Orvis said while the outlook was looking more positive, there was still a lot of uncertainty for the music and events industry, making it hard to plan in advance.
“All we know are the restrictions right now — there is no clarity as to what they are going to be come November, December and January,” he said.
Artist applications are open for Queenscliff Music Festival until April 30, with the line-up set to be announced mid-year.
The festival normally welcomes more than 80 acts — around 10 of which are international — but this year’s line- up would likely to feature Australian-only acts.
Mr Orvis said 2020 took a toll on the industry, which had faced a “year of nothing”.
“Last year was horrible for a lot of people, but there wasn’t many industries that were as heavily affected as the arts, culture and events,” he said.”
All three major local festivals were forced to cancel their 2020 plans due to coronavirus.
Meredith Music Festival organisers recently told the Geelong Advertiser a decision had not yet been made regarding its annual December festival.
“As always, the local Meredith community is part of our considerations,” they said. “Hopefully we can all meet up in ‘The Sup’ very soon.”
Lorne Falls Festival said it was also “too early in the year” to be able to make a call on the circumstances surrounding a festival this year.
Falls Festival is required to apply for and receive a place of public entertainment permit each year from the Surf Coast Shire council.
The council’s environment and development general manager, Ransce Salan, said a permit application for Falls Festival had not yet been received by the council, but an application was “not normally made until later in the year”.