Plans to permanently relocate the three-day festival to Murroon ended up in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal afternearby residents objected to the proposal.
A VCAT hearing had been set down for February this year,butwas abandoned last December after talks between festival organisers and objectors broke down.
In response to questions from this masthead in March about the fate of this year’s event,Falls had responded that they “hope to have some news in coming months”.
However,on Wednesday morning,festival producer Jessica Ducrou issued a statement in which she said there would be no festival this year,as organisers took a break to “re-imagine how Falls will look in the future”.
She added that the team would take the upcoming New Year’s season off to “rest,recover and recalibrate”.
Falls is one of Australia’s longest-running and most successful festivals,having spawned spin-off events in Marion Bay in Tasmania,Byron Bay in New South Wales,and Fremantle in Western Australia.
However,its future must now be under a cloud. The Marion Bay leg,which ran for 17 years,was last staged in 2019. Though the Fremantle festival went ahead in January,and Byron Bay was staged from December 30 to January 2,there is as yet no word on the fate of either event for next year.