Townsville City Council cancels live carols, food trucks to hold other event

Townsville City Council has canned the carols, leaving pop-up food truck owners in the lurch as it opts for a virtual Christmas celebration.

IN a move the Grinch would even baulk at, Townsville City Council has cancelled this year’s Christmas Carols.

The kicks keep coming in 2020 with council citing COVID-19 as the reason it has ditched the annual Carols by Candlelight at Riverway.

Instead, council has proposed a virtual show, “Carols @ Home,” showcasing a “best of” from previous years.

The news has gone down like a lead balloon for food truck vendors, whose horror 2020 has only been compounded by the decision to cancel the event at which they had been planning to showcase their wares.

The Feel Good Foodie owner Sally Vujica said she had been left deflated by the decision to can the carols.

Despite the Townsville City council pulling out Jono Pearson, Sally Vujica, CK Kern and Dan Wilschefski are going ahead with a Christmas event at Victoria Park in South Townsville. Picture: Evan Morgan

“We’ve sort of been left hanging,” Ms Vujica said.

“On the bottom of council’s email (to food truck owners) it says locals helping locals and I thought ‘bullsh-t’.

“It’s so hard for us as food vendors, the economy has fallen on its knees so we need all the help we can get.

“How can you pull carols when the entire world has been in such a state … we’re just struggling to understand the reason why. People don’t want virtual carols.”

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Potato Smash Crepes and Deserts owner Madonna Wilkes said the decision didn’t sit right with her. With Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium selling out for the State of Origin tonight, a carols event in Townsville should go ahead, she said. “You can fill a stadium and have footy, boxing and other events but you can’t have carols so you’ve got to ask why?” Ms Wilkes said.

“After the year the world has had and given we don’t have COVID here there should be something happening … people are flat and need uplifting.”

Jono Pearson from Pop Up Food Trucks (PUFT) said while the decision was disappointing they were planning to still run a pop-up event at Victoria Park in South Townsville on December 5.

Despite the Townsville City council pulling out Sally Vujica is going ahead with a Christmas event at Victoria Park in South Townsville. Picture: Evan Morgan

“Its disappointing but it’s opened up another opportunity we’re grabbing on to,” he said.

“They had to cancel it (carols) for whatever reason they’ve chosen to, I didn’t really dig too much into it and said, ‘OK, are you going to support us in doing our own’.

“We’re going to take on our own event on December 5, the more community involvement we can get the bigger it can be.

“We understand there’s a need for carols in the community … it’s obviously a smaller budget, there will be performances and loads of food.”

A council spokeswoman said its virtual carols – hosted by Pricey and including a pre-recorded performance by the 1RAR Band – will launch on the council’s website at 6.30pm, December 6, and will also stream on Triple M that night. She said the pop-up carols event was also planned with pre-recorded music.

“Given the cost and the lack of live acts due to COVID restrictions, hosting events was not feasible,” the spokeswoman said.

“Our staff went back to the drawing board on how to deliver carols in a COVID environment and landed on a Carols @ Home model that would still provide Christmas carols to the community.

“Council is hopeful to have PUFT come on board for future events now that restrictions in Queensland have eased again and in the meantime is providing our open spaces and venues for free for any events they hold.”

Originally published as Townsville City Council cancels live carols, food trucks to hold other event