The Rotary Club of Eaglehawk was due to hold its annual event at Canterbury Park on January 26.

But the club's community services officer Geoffrey Gallagher said the organisation was notified earlier this week that the event would need to be ticketed to ensure capacity limits weren't exceeded.

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"It wasn't impossible but it was far beyond the Rotary Club's resources to have a ticketed event in the park," he said.

"This is not something we wanted to do but in order to be COVID-safe, we realistically had no other option."

Mr Gallagher said the Rotary Club was "terribly disappointed".

"We apologise for any inconvenience but we must do the right thing and we must be safe," he said.

"It is terrible. We put in a large amount of work to get this up and running, and it's very disappointing for us not to go ahead with it."

There will still be an invitation-only event to celebrate the 2021 Eaglehawk Citizen of the Year, former Country Fire Authority captain Eric Smith.

The ceremony will take place at the Mechanics Institute Hall in California Gully.

"We still want to honour Eric," Mr Gallagher said. "We can only have 50 people in the hall so that's why it's invitation only."

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