It has been a crushing couple of years for events and live music but in Western Australia, which shut itself off from the rest of the country for almost two years, people are starting to breathe a sigh of relief.
More than 7,000 music lovers packed into Busselton's foreshore for the Out of the Woods music festival, the first major music event since the state reopened its hard border during March.
It came as health authorities warned the state was not actually out of the woods, with the south-west continuing to see record daily cases of COVID-19.
But inside the festival grounds, smiles were abundant as mask-less revellers spoke of the joy in feeling like things were finally back to normal.
Among them was Greg Brown, who said he had spent thousands of dollars on live music events in the past two years that were ultimately cancelled.
"This is the first festival I've been to for, like, over two years," he said.
"Please, please, please just let us party.
"We need this live music."
The two-day festival features big name acts such as Grinspoon, Angus and Julia Stone, Ball Park Music and Hermitude.
Festival organiser Ross McPherson said the lead up to the event had been exciting but nerve-wrecking with many people's livelihoods at stake after such a long downturn.
And the unpredictable nature of the pandemic still was front of mind.
"Last-minute cancellations are the absolute fear for this industry," Mr McPherson said.
Creating hope for others
Event Industry Association WA chair Tim Kennedy said a festival of this scale brought some hope to a sector that has been "under lockdown" since COVID-19 hit.
"The trickle-down effect has been just as devastating to suppliers as it has been to the event organisers who have bled considerable amounts of money," he said.
"So where we are now, whilst belated, we are really happy that we are finally starting to trend towards normality again."
Bunbury event organiser Jo O'Dea said it felt like a door had opened.
"Finally, finally we've got a large event with big capacity," she said.
"It's another step towards some sort of positive normality when it comes to events."
Musician Kristian Hopes from the band Grinspoon said his band's gig calendar was starting to fill up again.
"Usually, we have flights, hotels, cars all booked months in advance," he said.
"[Now] we're booking flights maybe a week-and-a-half out from the show because it's just so up in the air if something's going to change or not."
Not quite out of the woods
But although much hope has come with the launch of this festival, the shadow of COVID-19 remains.
The festival in Western Australia's prominent tourism region has come in the middle of back-to-back long weekends, with COVID cases spiking to their highest level yet on Friday.
Curtin University Global Population Health researcher Professor Jaya Dantas said this should not cause alarm with measures like mask mandates in place and high vaccination rates.
"People are tired of being in one place," she said.
"They want to travel as families, as groups and it's fine to do so as long we take note of certain protocols that we already do."
Last minute changes
Days out from the festival, organisers announced a line-up adjustment due to COVID-19, with one of the headline acts replaced.
Mr McPherson said a government-approved COVID plan was in place that was much less restrictive than other recent events.
"You're at no greater risk than going to the football or going to your local pub or restaurant for a meal than you are coming to an event like this," he said.
People were required to show proof of vaccination upon entry, with WA having one of the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the world.
Mr Kennedy said he believed it would still be some time before things were really out of the woods.
"I don't think we're going to really see anything come back online in major numbers until probably later this year, and that is presuming we see restrictions disappear hopefully over the coming months," he said.
"Around the world and around the country, it's good to see that restrictions are moving in that direction."
