Amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Castlemaine Jazz Festival has cancelled their 2021 event scheduled for the Queen's Birthday long weekend.
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President Calum McClure said he was left with no alternative but to cancel after the Victorian government announced Melburnians would not be able to travel over the long weekend and 90 per cent of the festival's musicians live in the state's capital.
"It's not viable for us to have the festival," Mr McClure said.
"We're looking at maybe rescheduling but there are a lot of people terrified of the same thing happening again.
"I'm so shattered, we've had to cancel two years in a row. There's a lot of work that goes into planning these events and some of our committee have spent hours on the COVIDSafe plan for the pin to be pulled at the last minute."
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Mr McClure said the community-driven would be able to financially recover from the cancellation and hoped the jazz industry will continue to back the event.
"We're an established festival with a bit of a reputation for putting on a good event and bridging the gap with high-standard amateur players and the professionals," he said.
The idea of the festival is that it's a real platform for Melbourne and Australian bands to play that aren't James Morrison.
- Calum McClure
"We've just got to keep going. We're lucky our festival isn't massive financially and this isn't going to collapse us."
The committee has a few ideas on what can occur in place of the usual festival, but Mr McClure said the entertainment industry has radically shifted in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
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"I've been in the industry for 25 years and this it first time there's ever been a whole different level of risk," he said.
"Risk used to be that no one would turn up for you gig and that was in your hands as the musician, but now it's out of hands.
"This is territory we've not been to before and we're adjusting to a new way of operating."
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