Cygnet Folk Festival’s January 2022 event cancelled amid uncertainty of Omicron variant

Organisers of a popular Tasmanian festival have cancelled the event just weeks away from it being held, amid the uncertainty of Covid including the Omicron variant. FULL STORY >>>

THE persistent spectre of Covid has resulted in another Tasmanian event being cancelled just weeks away from being held.

Organisers of the Cygnet Folk Festival have announced next month’s event will not go ahead, but have promised it will return in 2023.

The festival was scheduled to run from January 14-16.

Announcing the news on the festival’s Facebook page, Cygnet Folk Festival president Anne Foale said it was with a heavy heart that the committee had chosen to cancel.

Cygnet Folk Festival 2020. (L-R) Whoa Mule perform in Carmel Hall. Picture: MATT THOMPSON

Cygnet Folk Festival 2020. (L-R) Maya Walker and Iseabail O'Rourke are performers at the festival. Picture: MATT THOMPSON

“With the outbreak of the new Omicron variant, we feel that the potential risk to the community is such that we cannot see a way of sufficiently mitigating this risk for January 2022,’’ she said.

“We make this decision in consideration of the health and wellbeing of all our artists, crew, volunteers, stallholders, billet hosts and of course, our valued patrons.

“We appreciate how vital these events are to their livelihood and the wider community’s mental health.

“But with site contracts, production costs, travel and accommodation arrangements for our artists and other financial obligations now due, our hand has been forced to make this decision now.”

Greens Franklin MP Rosalie Woodruff said the reopening of borders to people from high risk states amid a highly contagious new wave was creating worry in the community.

“The active cases already recorded in Tasmania, the thousands of visitors flying in from high risk states, and the rapid pace of Omicron transmission, is a disturbing portent of a super spreader Christmas event,’’ she said.

“The government’s testing systems are already failing to keep up with demand, and many Tasmanians are asking why the Premier has abandoned the plan, devised before the Omicron wave, to put the safety of Tasmanians first?”

Dr Woodruff suggested the reopening to high risk states be paused, arguing the health system could not cope with the high load of cases a Christmas super spreader event could produce.

But Premier Peter Gutwein said further outbreaks were not unexpected and the system was coping with additional caseloads.

“The system is working. It’s part of the plan. We always said Covid would arrive, but that we would have systems in place to manage it,” Mr Gutwein said.

Cygnet Folk Festival organisers said they would instead set up for a “huge celebration” in 2023, while a celebration of 40 years of the event was being planned for May.

Ticket holders for the January festival will be contacted in coming days.

Follow @cwhiteley12