Ballarat's bi-annual international photography festival is now on hold after regional Victoria re-entered lockdown at the weekend.
The Ballarat International Foto Biennale (BIFB), which attracts more than 200,000 visitors to the regional city, was scheduled to open on August 28 and run until October.
Fiona Sweet, BIFB artistic director, said installation of exhibitions will continue this week and the festival will be ready to open once lockdown lifts in regional Victoria.
While the opening day is unknown at this stage, Ms Sweet said the festival staff were planning for September 2, the date the Victorian lockdown is currently extended to.
Ms Sweet said BIFB relied on ticket sales to help fund future festivals but was a strong institution and "we've been mitigating risks all year".
She said BIFB was now in discussions with several venues to extend some of the festival's 160 exhibitions, including the exclusive headline exhibition of photographer Linda McCartney.
For Ballarat residents, outdoor exhibitions will start to appear around the city this week.
Speaking on ABC Ballarat, Ms Sweet said the number of outdoor exhibitions had been intentionally increased for the 2021 festival.
BIFB said existing ticketholders will be able to reschedule for a later date.
A spokesperson at BIFB said because the festival was such a long-running event it was hoped there would be plenty of time for metropolitan audiences to attend once it was safe to do so.
