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Festival cancellations after wet weekend in Oz

Perhaps mindful of earlier events in New Zealand, Party in the Park and Red Hot Summer Tour were among the festivals cancelled or postponed due to severe weather

By IQ on 20 Mar 2017

John Farnham, 2014, Red Hot Summer Tour

John Farnham, who was to have played in Kiama for the Red Hot Summer tour on Saturday


image © Sean 917/Wikimedia Commons

Several Australian festivals were cancelled at the eleventh hour last weekend as severe storms battered the states of New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland.

4-D International’s third Party in the Park, scheduled for Saturday 18 March in Sydney’s Pittwater Park, was called off the previous day on the advice of police and the Northern Beaches council.

A statement from the festival said the decision was “completely out of our control”. “It has been a terrible day for us,” it reads. “We are so very sorry; however, there is nothing we can do. Mother Nature has taken [her] toll and the weather conditions for tomorrow are just too severe. All festival tickets will be fully refunded by Moshtix.”

Also affected was touring festival Red Hot Summer Tour, which postponed its sold-out Kiama, New South Wales, leg after the site was hit by more than 150ml (nine cubic inches) of rain in 24 hours.

“Patron safety … cannot be guaranteed if the event proceeds”

“The decision to postpone was not taken lightly,” promoter Duane McDonald said on Friday. “With over 150ml of rain in the last 24 hours, and 75–90ml and high winds forecast for tomorrow, we believe that patron safety is paramount and cannot be guaranteed if the event proceeded.”

Sydney’s St Patrick’s Day parade was also called off over weather concerns, while Canberra hot-air balloon festival Balloon Spectacular experienced its “worst run of ballooning weather in its 30-year history”.

The cancellations come after Sundaise Productions, the promoter of New Zealand’s Sundaise Festival, was criticised for not calling off the 2017 event, which saw some 200 people evacuated after a nearby river burst its banks and flooded the festival site.

A number of European festivals, including Germany’s Rock am Ring and Southside, were called off in 2016 after a summer of severe weather.

 


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