Festival of Voices: Changes to program amid Covid uncertainty across the country
Australian singer songwriter Dami Im has officially withdrawn from the Festival of Voices after other big names cancelled their performances at this year’s event. LATEST PROGRAM UPDATE >>
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Australian singer songwriter Dami Im has officially withdrawn from the Festival of Voices as the country continues to come to grapple with the latest coronavirus outbreak.
It comes after two acts including rock duo Polish Club were cancelled and two others postponed yesterday.
“As of 3:30 Dami Im unfortunately has been a withdrawal from our program, she’s in Brisbane so that was quite a task to get her down her and in the end it was unworkable,” Festival Director Peter Choraziak said.
The Premier this afternoon announced those attending festival of voices events would need to wear masks, except performers when they are singing.
“We are absolutely welcoming the news because we’d much prefer a festival with people wearing masks than no festival at all,” Mr Choraziak said.
“It’ll be a novelty for some of our singalong events, we’ve never sung along with a mask before so I’d be interested to see how that sounds.”
The Festival director said masks will be available at the Tasmania Sings events tonight and tomorrow night, but audiences will be required to bring their own at other events.
“Wear a mask or you may not be able to enter,” he said
Mr Choraziak said it was hard to gauge the full effect of the pandemic on the festival and on ticket sales.
“People come from all around Australia to come to our festival some of those just simply can’t come, others are here already which is brilliant,” Mr Choraziak said
“There’s no doubt the current outbreaks have impacted our festival we’ve had to cancel events and there may be more events that need to be postponed or cancelled.
“We will probably see a reduction from anywhere from a quarter to a third of our program as originally advertised”
Festival of Voices: Changes to program amid Covid uncertainty
UPDATE - Tuesday 29, June:
DUE to the uncertainty around border restrictions amid new Covid outbreaks around Australia, Sydney based duo Polish Club have made the decision to cancel their upcoming Festival of Voices show.
While praising the efforts of their management and the Festival of Voices team to try and get them to Tasmania, they said they were concerned about the safety and practicality of travelling to Hobart at this time.
The band was due to perform at the Odeon Theatre on Saturday night.
“They look forward to being back in Tassie as soon as is safe and possible,” the festival team said.
Ticket holders have been contacted about refunds.
EARLIER: IT’S full steam ahead for the popular Festival of Voices this week, with organisers calling on Tasmanians to get behind the long running winter event.
The vocal extravaganza starts tomorrow and runs through to July 11.
Festival director Peter Choraziak said organisers were still working with the state controller’s office in getting in any essential workers needed and as of last night there were no changes to the program.
“Some participants – the choirs and audiences who were going to come from those red zones in NSW won’t be able to, but on the plus side, all the Victorians we were worried about a couple of weeks ago are now clear to come,” he said.
Some events have started to sell out, but Mr Choraziak said the festival would need local support now more than ever.
“We’ve worked hard to plan a fairly ambitious festival and there’s a lot of local content which is just as well,” he said.
“We’ve got very safe environments planned and we don’t want people to miss out.”
Local musician Hugo Bladel will be supporting Sydney band Polish Club at the Odeon Theatre on Saturday night as well as performing a couple of songs at the Big Sing event at Macquarie Point earlier that evening.
The FoV first timer said attendees could expect “funk mandolin, gut busting saxophone solos, a little bit of circus and even more funk.”
“Music is a beautiful opportunity for people to come together and I think singing is a very healing thing to do and in the world at the moment, its very crucial for us to band together,” he said.
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