A Midwest event coordinator says the key to the industry's viability is to turn the focus to locals.
Tyson Overstone is the owner of Sweet Orange Productions, a Geraldton-based events company that was thriving before the pandemic.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Mr Overstone has had to return to construction work to support his family.
He said he had lost "a couple of hundred thousand dollars" in event work over the past two years.
"It's a lot of money and it's been really devastating for a business that we're so passionate about and spent over five, six years building up," Mr Overstone said.
"It almost feels like we're starting from scratch again.
"It's been a slog for nearly two years now; it's taking its toll."
Mr Overstone said developing the local event industry for regional audiences would "100 per cent" benefit the Midwest because there would be less reliance on people travelling from Perth and elsewhere.
"With some of the bigger festivals, we're so focused on bringing people in from outside of the Midwest, whereas there are so many people in the Midwest with money who want good events," he said.
"A lot of people can complain about ticket prices for something we put on in the Midwest but they'd happily go and spend twice that in Perth.
"I've been involved in festivals all over Australia and the standard we are offering in all different areas throughout the Midwest is on par with some of the best I've seen.
"We are in a beautiful, amazing location and there are so many talented artists, so many talented food producers."
Disruptions creating losses
Sweet Orange Productions was taking part in three sold-out events in the greater Perth region over the festive season, which were cancelled due to a coronavirus outbreak in the city.
Mr Overstone said one event was completely cancelled because of the postponing logistics.
"[It] was just another big kick in the guts because it finally felt like we were getting back to some normality.
"We're back where we were almost 20 months ago."
The event coordinator said he had mixed feelings about Western Australia's scheduled border reopening on February 5.
"I think it's going to make things worse for our industry, for hospitality, for anything that involves people getting together and gathering," he said.
"At the moment we've tried to focus on tourism events, community events and weddings and engagement parties as opposed to the big festivals that we do.
"I feel that if it gets in here and things get worse that even those will get shut down."
