Falls Festival Is No Longer Going Ahead With Its 2020 End-of-Year Festival

"Given the current status of things and border restrictions in place, it won’t be possible to hold Falls Festival in our regular New Year’s timeframe."
Sarah Ward and Samantha Teague
August 26, 2020

Back in May, when Australia started to look past social distancing and public gathering rules to a less-restricted future, Falls Festival announced it was powering ahead with plans for its New Year's festival. But a couple of months is a long time in 2020 — and today, Wednesday, August 26, the event has announced that it will not longer be taking place this year.

In a statement released via Facebook, festival organisers advised that "given the current status of things and border restrictions in place, it won't be possible to hold Falls Festival in our regular New Year's timeframe". It's worth noting that the post doesn't say that the next iteration of Falls is completely cancelled, however. "Consider this a raincheck, and please know we will be back with more information as it comes to hand," the statement notes.

As for what that entails, Falls will "work with government stakeholders and key agencies to get Falls Festival back in the calendar". Clearly, given the way the past few months have shaped up — including with Victoria's reimplemented restrictions — there are a hefty range of factors to navigate.

Dear Falls Fam,Falls Festival will no longer be taking place this year. In May, as the nation seemed to be moving into...

Posted by Falls Music and Arts Festival on Tuesday, 25 August 2020

If it had gone ahead in its usual December/January slot in 2020/2021, the summer festival had planned to implement some big changes. Usually taking place at Tassie's Marion Bay, Lorne in Victoria, North Byron and Fremantle, it was set to feature an all-Aussie lineup this year — which, with Australia's borders currently closed and even travel between just Australia and New Zealand "still some time away", seemed the smart choice. It also had the added bonus of helping Aussie musicians, many of which have been financially impacted by the COVID-19 lockdown.

When the festival does go ahead, it's still fair to expect that it might look a little different — at least in terms of punters numbers. Falls Byron usually has around 25,000 attendees, while Falls Lorne has 9000, for example, figures that seem particularly large in today's social-distancing world.

Last year, the music festival was impacted by the bushfires, with the Lorne leg cancelled one day in because of extreme and hazardous weather.

Falls Festival will no longer go ahead in December 2020/January 2021. We'll let you know if and when more details are announced. 

Published on August 26, 2020 by Sarah Ward
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