City of Melbourne reveals Melbourne Fashion Week, Christmas Festival to go ahead
Melbourne City Council is working on a recovery plan to help inner-city businesses when restrictions are eased. See which major events are due to launch in November.
Victoria
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Melbourne Fashion Week and the CBD’s Christmas Festival will go ahead in November under a city council recovery plan.
The City of Melbourne is also planning expanded outdoor dining, live performances and other pop-up activities as pandemic restrictions ease.
Lord Mayor Sally Capp said the plan included working with precinct associations, businesses, community groups and artists to reactivate retail strips and vacant shopfronts.
“Over the coming months we’ll continue cleaning hot spots, create more space for people in our Little streets, kickstart outdoor dining with a faster permit system, and keep advocating to extend indoor trading outdoors,” she said.
“We want to deliver live performances, art installations and other pop-up activities to bring life back to the city over spring and the vital Christmas period.”
Councillors will consider the COVID-19 Reactivation and Recovery Plan at a meeting on Tuesday amid economic devastation for the city due to Andrews Government shutdowns.
Ms Capp said that Melbourne Fashion Week and the city’s Christmas Festival were due to launch in November.
“We’re proud of our reputation as Australia’s cultural capital, and we’re looking at safe and creative ways to draw people back into the city,” she said.
The Lord Mayor said a return of workers to the city would be central to reactivating the city and the draft plan included urging major employers to promise to plan for the safe and staged
return of their workforce to the central city.
“The City of Melbourne will be doing its bit, by bringing as many staff as possible back to Town Hall and our other key sites once restrictions ease,” she said.
Deputy Lord Mayor Arron Wood said it was right that council would look at extending the fee waiver for outdoor dining, which normally generates more than $403,000 a year in revenue.
“We’ve already waived fees for our street trading permits and councillors will consider extending the fee holiday until 30 June 2021,” he said.
“This would reduce cash pressures on businesses as they work to stay viable in the
coming weeks and months. We’re standing with the business community, and I’m proud we were one of the first councils in Victoria to freeze rate rises.”
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