ORGANISERS of a popular B&S believe an electronic music and alternative lifestyle festival planned for Wooroonook Lakes next month can be salvaged.
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And they have urged Maitreya Festival promoter Lachlan Bell and representatives from Buloke Shire Council to get together and make it happen.
Sam Shotton, an Elmore B&S committee member, said she had seen first-hand what could happen when parties came together to find a resolution to public event permit issues.
The committee was this year forced to compromise with Campaspe Shire Council over changes to the way the March event is regulated, in the wake of a death of a woman in 2014 at a music festival on private property in Rochester.
"Our committee has to apply to the Shire of Campaspe for a permit to run the event and they give us guidelines as to what requirements we have to meet to ensure a safe place for people who attend," she said.
"One of those rules they wanted implemented this year was they wanted us to park in one paddock and camp in another.
"That's not conducive to what we do - we might as well have shut the gate because people wouldn't come.
"So between the shire, Elmore Events Centre, local police and our committee we have been able to come up with an acceptable modification to those rules."
Ms Shotton said if due diligence was done by all parties, a resolution, like that involving the Elmore B&S, could be achieved and local towns would benefit.
She said the Campaspe Shire had been nothing but supportive to ensure the event could go-ahead and in a safe manner.
"I don't what happened in Charlton, but the shire here have been very proactive in following up," she said.
"After we posted (the changes) online on our Facebook page, we got a lot of negative comments about what we wanted to do, but the shire actually rang me to say 'what do you think we can do to fix this'.
"They are even watching what people are saying about us - and that's proactive."
Ms Shotton was certain the Maitreya Festival could proceed near Charlton next month and urged the warring parties to put aside their differences to find a resolution.
Festival organisers are threatening to take the council to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in a bid to overturn the decision not to grant a planning permit for the event.
Meanwhile, an online petition urging the council to reconsider its position has attracted more than 2000 signatures.
The council said it had worked to the best of its abilities with the promoter to no avail.
"It is hard to see what else a small shire like Buloke could have done. We can't fund these events or do the promoters job for them," Mayor Reid Mather said.
