New South Wales’ Maitreya Festival has had its permit denied by a local council, and says it now “may never” return.
Organisers have taken to Facebook today, to announce that Buloke Council has not granted permission for them to hold “any more events” at Lake Wooroonook, leading management to say, “We may never be able to present you Maitreya Festival again.”
Earlier this year, Maitreya Festival ran into trouble when the local council denied its permit to hold the festival in Wooroonook Lakes. It then announced a new site “just down the road”, but it was eventually cancelled after police urged punters not to attend.
Punters were later told by organisers that they were “unable to make anymore refunds for tickets”, before ticketing agency TryBooking issued $520,524 worth of refunds to customers but were out of pocket $409,082 in money not paid to them by Maitreya Festival.
The organisers announced that they would hold an event “exclusively” for ticket-holders on ‘Grand Final’ weekend, which is this weekend, but that has now been cancelled.
“It is with great sorrow that we have been unable to get approval from the Buloke Council for any more events at Lake Wooroonook, including the grand final weekend event,” they wrote.
Organisers have some hope that they will eventually get approval as the CEO and mayor of Buloke Council stepped down earlier this month, however, there has been no luck just yet. It’s unknown if they will now issues refunds to all punters, as their consolation event has now been cancelled too.
View Maitreya Festival’s Facebook post, below.
