Fairbridge Pageant 2023 cancelled, folks occasion’s future unsure as hunt for brand spanking new venue begins
A centrepiece of Western Australia’s arts and tradition scene, the Fairbridge Pageant, has been cancelled for 2023 — simply 5 months earlier than it was on account of go forward.
Key factors:
- The Fairbridge Pageant has been cancelled for 2023
- The the operator of the historic village web site says it may possibly’t deal with the crowds
- Mining big Alcoa says it tried to assist, regardless of claims it refused entry to land
Now the search is on for a brand new residence for future occasions.
The operator of the historic Fairbridge Village has confirmed it will now not host the annual folks pageant, forcing organisers to seek for a brand new venue.
Ageing infrastructure, poor sewerage and enormous crowds have been blamed.
President of Folkworld Inc Drew Dymond informed ABC radio it was a devastating choice to make, however organisers had been unable to come back to an settlement with the village managers.
“I am positive there will probably be lots of people who will probably be actually, actually upset to listen to the information,” he stated.
The folks pageant has been a staple of the West Australian music calendar because it started in 1992.
Nevertheless, the occasion suffered main disruptions through the pandemic and has solely being held as soon as since 2020.
Mr Dymond stated there was no prospect of holding the pageant at Fairbridge Village sooner or later.
“They’ve indicated … that they need to take a unique path to us,” he stated.
“We tried to work by way of all that, and there was probably a manner we may have gotten a unique model of the pageant up for 2023, however it was fairly clear to us that we had been going to be unwelcome tenants,” he stated.
In accordance with a press release on the Fairbridge Pageant web site, areas normally used for tenting and parking had been unavailable and organisers would have wanted to chop patron numbers in half.
“The dangers of continuing, significantly given the quick discover, had been sadly too excessive and efforts had been higher spent discovering one other long-term venue for the pageant,” the assertion learn.
Whereas the pageant discovered its starting in Toodyay, in WA’s Wheatbelt, it has been held at Fairbridge Village in WA’s Peel area for greater than twenty years.
Village at odds with mining big
Mike Nahan is chairman of Fairbridge WA, which manages the village.
He expressed disappointment concerning the cancellation of the 2023 occasion.
However the organisation apportioned half of the blame to mining big Alcoa.
In a press release offered to the ABC, the Fairbridge WA stated a few of the points had been round land that was usually made accessible by Alcoa.
“Alcoa’s current choice for the primary time in over 25 years to not permit Folkworld entry to land adjoining to the Fairbridge Village has considerably lowered the pageant’s capability,” the assertion learn.
“Previously, Alcoa’s land accounted for the lion’s share of tenting, caravan, and car-parking area.
“With out this land, the pageant … can not stay at that scale.”
The assertion stated fragile infrastructure on the 100-year-old heritage-listed village wouldn’t deal with an estimated 3,500 further campers with out utilizing the Alcoa land.
Nevertheless, an Aloca spokesperson stated the corporate didn’t place any restrictions on both the Fairbridge Village or pageant organisers in relation to the variety of attendees.
“Alcoa has been a proud long-term supporter of each the Fairbridge Village since 1983 and the Fairbridge Pageant since 1992,” the assertion learn.
“This yr we labored intently with Fairbridge Pageant to search out options to the land availability matter to allow to occasion to proceed.”
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