Falls Festival takes a raincheck as COVID-19 cancels the party

Australia's summer of festivals is all but over with Falls the latest major music event to be culled by the coronavirus pandemic.

Organisers pulled the pin on Falls Festival, which runs from New Year's Eve until early January in Lorne, Marion Bay, Byron Bay and Fremantle, after losing faith that social distancing and border restrictions would be lifted in time to allow the popular event to proceed.

Falls Festival has been cancelled this year.

Falls is the latest in a string of festivals to be dumped. CMC Rocks, BluesFest, Splendour in the Grass, Woodford and Port Fairy folk festivals, Strawberry Fields, Listen Out, the Gympie Music Muster, Groovin The Moo and Day on the Lawn have all called it quits for 2020. Meredith Music Festival, which is held in Victoria in mid-December, is yet to officially announce its plans, but the state's second wave of coronavirus and international and local border restrictions have thrown dark clouds over its future.

Paul Piticco and Jessica Ducrou, who run Falls and Splendour in the Grass, optimistically announced in May that the summer music staple would proceed in December and January with an all-Australian line-up, but said that would no longer be possible due to social distancing requirements and state border restrictions.

"In May, as the nation seemed to be moving into recovery mode, we were optimistic about forging ahead and supporting our local industry with an all Aussie edition of Falls Festival," the pair said in a statement released on Wednesday morning. "However, given the current status of things and border restrictions in place, it won’t be possible to hold Falls Festival in our regular New Year’s timeframe."

Piticco and Ducrou said they would work with health authorities to get Falls "back in the calendar" with safety as the priority. "Consider this a raincheck and please know we will be back with more information as it comes to hand."

Peking Duk have played five Falls Festivals and the electronic music duo's Reuben Styles said the event formed a key part of their touring calendar.

“Having played a hugely exciting and successful Falls Festival at the beginning of this year we are saddened to see that Falls, like many other music festivals in Australia, won’t be happening this New Year’s Eve," Styles said. "The music festival is a staple of any music loving Australians calendar and an important part of our own touring calendars and we are hoping that sooner rather than later we can get back to playing music festivals like Falls Festival once again”

Michael Parisi, who manages artists including Vera Blue and Polish Club who are popular on the festival circuit, said the cancellations were devastating for the broader industry.

"The fact we can't put our artists on these festivals is a sad state of affairs," Parisi said "But what else can we do? We are governed by the laws that are put in place and until they feel it is appropriate for these events to happen we need to find new ways to adapt to the circumstances we find ourselves in"

Earlier this month, acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said music festivals were "not front of mind" for medical experts.

"In relation to music events ... they are relatively high risk," Mr Kelly said. "Large numbers of people, often multi-day events, lots of close contact, dancing and singing and so forth, all of these things are higher risk than some other mass gatherings."