THE 2021 Tamworth Country Music Festival is set to be suspended after organisers recommended Tamworth Regional Council forego the annual event in light of restrictions placed on crowd sizes amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Festival manager Barry Harley announced the organisers' recommendations in Tamworth on Tuesday morning, supported by stakeholders including Wests CEO Rod Laing, and The Pub Group's Craig Power and local police.
Tamworth Regional Council is expected to vote on the recommendation to suspend council-run operations at the next meeting on September 8.
The Tamworth Country Music Festival is a major event in the national country music calendar, drawing more than 50,000 visitors to Tamworth each year. The Northern Daily Leader reports this week, suspending the event could cost up to $50 million in lost local tourism revenue.
The call to suspend council's festival operations was followed shortly after by word that the Country Music Association of Australia's annual awards gala - known as the Golden Guitar awards, run in tandem with the Tamworth festival - would push ahead, though likely reduced to a live-streamed event in light of the pandemic.
Mr Harley said the recommendation to suspend council-run operations during the festival, which was slated to run January 15 to 24 next year, comes in light public health orders which restrict public gatherings of more than 20 people.
BREAKING: #tcmf2021 has been called off due to Covid-19. Story to come via @The_NDL pic.twitter.com/03WjEkqlDR
— Billy Jupp (@jupp_billy) September 1, 2020
Council annually closes Peel and Fitzroy streets, as well as Kable Avenue, in Tamworth's city centre to accomodate major attractions including live performances and the festival cavalcade, free concerts, as well as the annual busking competition which attracts hundreds of undiscovered artists from across the country each year.
The busking competition is credited with discovering stars of Australian country music including Troy Cassar-Daley, Keith Urban, Kasey Chambers and Beccy Cole.
"All of the elements that council is actually involved in require amassing crowds over 20 (people)," Mr Harley said.
"The due considerations (to) health and safety, and well-being of the community, the industry, and all the fans that come to Tamworth ... the suspension of our activities for January 2021 is the only outcome that we can foresee."
Despite the nine-day event being still around four months away, Mr Harley said council-run operations during the festival would be illegal under current health orders and organisers' felt that it was the right time to recommend shuttering.
"It is the right decision and we'll stand by it," he said. "If we had to shut down the community for six or eight weeks that effect would be far greater than the loss of the 10 days of the festival."
Under normal circumstances, tickets would already have by now been on sale and mass marketing campaigns to attract the crowds would have been underway.
Mr Harley said the call to suspend would inevitably come at the cost of the the festival's atmosphere, but added that the announcement comes after months of consultation with industry, local businesses and sponsors.
"Even for venues it would be increasingly difficult for them to provide quality entertainment with the restrictions that they have to abide by," he said.
Tamworth councillors are expected to vote on the recommendation next Tuesday, September 8.
