Organisers of Perth’s Origin Fields have released a statement regarding the festival’s cancellation due to the state’s current COVID-19 restrictions.
Origin Fields was scheduled to take place tomorrow (31st December), and was set to host performances from the likes of Pendulum, ShockOne, Godlands and more. Due to current restrictions, which are scheduled to be in place until next Tuesday, 4th January, the event is no longer able to go ahead.
“Well it seems that the opportunity to hold our event has once again slipped through our fingers. In the 15 years of holding the event, we’ve never endured anything like this,” organisers explained in a statement on Monday.
“Our approvals were in place, our site is already half built and no expenses has been spared but we understand that public safety has to come first.”
Organisers acknowledged that while Origin Fields and other outdoor music events had been forced to cancel their events due to the restrictions, the Perth Cup horse race will still be permitted to go ahead on New Year’s Day. Patrons will be required to provide proof of vaccination in order to attend the Cup.
“[It’s] just frustrating to see that horse racing and gambling takes precedence over the arts in this state and there’s no real nice way to frame that,” they said. “We are sorry to all the patrons, staff and suppliers affected by this and we will be making some formal announcements to ticket holders regarding postponements and refunds shortly.”
WA premier Mark McGowan defended the decision to allow the Perth Cup to go ahead while canning music festivals at a press conference yesterday (29th December), saying the two events were incomparable.
“A dance party with hundreds if not thousands of people dancing together to other events which are seated and have mask wearing in place, it’s not a fair comparison,” he said. “It’s what we’ve had to do around these events where lots of people are dancing, not wearing masks in close proximity to one another.”
