Boolarra Folk Festival, Sounds of Summer: Gippsland rallies to save festivals

Two Gippsland events have cancelled their festivals citing the impact of Covid, but this community has a plan to bring them back to life.

A Gippsland community is rallying to save a festival forced to postpone their 20 year celebration because of Covid.

The Boolarra Folk Festival was postponed in March as organisers feared the red tape they would have to cut to meet state government requirements to host an event.

Publicity officer, David Francis, said the festival was held virtually last year to keep audiences engaged but that came with a cost.

“In 2021, we did a Facebook festival on the day, so people could still enjoy some entertainment at home, but it cost us money as well,” he said.

“The majority of our funding comes from merchandise purchases on the day as well as stall sales and we weren’t able to make up the costs through that.”

Run entirely on volunteers, the free festival provides the Boolarra community with a place to gather surrounded by live music, crafts and food.

Now they are asking for help from the community and have started a GoFundMe page to get back up and running.

“We made decision to postpone because we weren’t sure what Covid will do. The festival is usually open with free access to all so we were worried we’d have to put up some walls and would take away some of the magic from the festival,” Mr Francis said.

“So thought let's sit on this and come back and make it something really special next year.”

People have donated $2500 already despite the fundraiser only running for three weeks.

“We are thrilled with support we have received with donations and just the feedback of people saying they want us to come back,” Mr Francis said.

It comes as the Sounds of Summer Festival in Inverloch announced it would not be running this year due to falling short on ticket sales.

In a statement, organisers said the decision was made with a “heavy heart” but if it went ahead, they would be running at a loss.

“Our team has been putting in months and months of hard work to make this show amazing, however ticket sales aren't where we need them to be. If we were to continue pressing ahead the event would lose a really significant amount of money,” a spokesperson addressed.

The festival went ahead in 2021 with Aussie icon Daryl Braithwaite headlining the first Inverloch event.