West Set Festival announces cancellation
Published on 17 August 2021
Given the announcement of Victoria’s extended lockdown Maribyrnong City Council has made the difficult decision to cancel this year’s West Set Festival.
With many shows sold out, it is clear the festival has been embraced by our community and host venues. But the safety of artists, festival and venue staff and audience members is our number one priority. Given the highly contagious nature of the Covid-19 Delta variant, and continued spread, means we cannot ensure the safety of all participants for this year’s Festival.
In lieu of the late cancellation and previous postponement in June, all artist payments will be honoured and the festival will connect artists with host venues to independently re-schedule a performance when it is safe to do so. For ticketed headline shows - Angie McMahon with support by Maple Glider; and Hayley Mary supported by Alma Zygier and Berkay Mete; full refunds will be offered
West Set music festival was a special initiative introduced by Council back in 2016 to support the night time economy of Footscray in winter. Footscray is developing an enviable night time scene, with its diverse food, beverage and entertainment offerings, and proximity to the Melbourne CBD. Footscray, is now rated as one of the coolest neighborhoods in the world. These vibrant venues and small businesses have been further showcased in council’s highly successful Love Your Local campaign.
The City of Maribyrnong is also known as a highly creative community, with a significant number of residents employed in the creative economy which includes the live music sector. This year’s program employed over 60 acts - many of them from the inner west - playing across 12 venues in Footscray and Yarraville.
While we are unfortunately having to cancel this year’s event, we want to acknowledge the efforts of Hear Them Hollar artist and event management for the expert curation of the 2021 program which genuinely reflected the creativity, energy and cultural diversity of Maribyrnong’s community.
In the meantime, we urge you to continue to support our local host venues and fellow traders and all livelihoods who are connected to live music in any way you can. Please stay safe until we can return to the dance floor! For more info, head to our website. westsetfestival.com
Maribyrnong News
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