A BOUTIQUE musical festival planned for Goulburn is to be postponed following questions of fire safety, organisers say.
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This, on top of the required Council Development Application processes, saw the Marmalade Skies organising party fall too short of time. Construction was due to start on the site, 20km south of Goulburn, next week.
The decision was made on Wednesday afternoon following a site inspection.
“We’re sorry that we’ve disappointed and let down people and we’re working very closely with Council, the fire department and police and will take their advice,” event co-director Nick Kelly told the Post yesterday.
“In their opinion, with the very hot summer expected and the devastating impacts of bushfires last year, it was safer to postpone the event.”
Between 1000 - 1500 music fans were set to flock to the undisclosed location for a weekend of camping, music and arts between December 12 and 14.
The line-up boasted an impressive selection of Aussie up and comers.
It will now be held around March/April.
“With it only being three-and-a-half weeks until the festival it unfortunately wasn’t enough time to implement the changes, submit the applications and get them approved and signed off,” Mr Kelly said.
“Our absolute first priority is the safety of our guests… we came to the decision together that in the interest of health and safety the wisest thing to do is postpone until the other end of summer.”
Even if fire-safety was not a factor, the likelihood the festival was to go ahead was questionable given the required timeframe for Council DA submission.
Prior to the postponement an official application was yet to be handed to Council’s planning department for consideration.
Despite this, tickets had been sold to hundreds of punters and artists and business partners locked in.
Goulburn Mulwaree Planning and Development director Louise Wakefield said on Wednesday that the festival needed development consent before it could proceed.
“As at November 19, Council has not received a Development Application (DA) for the event,” Mrs Wakefield said.
“For the festival to go ahead the organisers require development consent and to date we have not received any documentation.
“We had a pre-lodgement meeting with the organisers at the end of October, but we have not been able to assess the proposal or provide feedback to the organisers.
“Basically the Council’s position is that it would now be quite impractical to organise development consent for them within the timeframe left.
“There is just over 20 days to go to arrange that and Council’s normal DA processing requirements would make that quite difficult to achieve.”
Mr Kelly said he and his partners were committed to working closely with Council between now and next year.
“The DA package had been done and we were ready to submit it and had obviously been in contact with council, the site check was just the last thing we needed to go through…
“Obviously we are disappointed because we have been building towards this for some time, but the Council have been extremely supportive and helpful and we are currently working with them and our artists to select a new date.
“We are a new production company trying to provide a young, fresh opportunity not just for us but for the artists and fans. We believe we can continue to show something very special and are now triply confident given the extra four months for planning.”