Esoteric Festival 2025 is officially cancelled.
Late Thursday, March 6th, organisers of the fest in Donald, country Victoria, confirmed the show would not go on this weekend as planned, a development that caps an eventful week.
The last-minute shutdown follows the announcement late Monday, March 3rd that, with “overwhelming community support,” the local Buloke Shire Council had voted in favour of presenting the event this long weekend.
There’s more to the story. At that session, council voted to approve a one-year planning permit, for the event to be presented March 6—11.
The permit was granted, against the Council officers’ recommendation, reads a statement from Buloke Shire Council, and was subject to 47 conditions.
The following day, on Tuesday, the festival’s application for a Place of Public Entertainment (POPE-OP) was reject by the Council’s Municipal Building Surveyor, who cited 33 grounds of refusal.
With the POPE-OP application refused, the event “does not have the required approvals” and organisers have been advised to cancel the event. Ongoing safety and compliance are among the issues cited.
Organisers appealed to the State Building Surveyor, Steven Baxas, to intervene, the message reads. Baxas, however, expressed support for council’s decision to refuse to issue a POPE-OP.
In a separate message posted to social media, Esoteric Music Festival managing director Sam Goldsmith says he and his team are “utterly devastated” by the cancellation.
“To say we are disappointed is an understatement – we are gutted,” he continues. “This is a devastating blow for all involved – from our patrons to the local businesses that have been planning for this all year. It is bureaucracy and politics gone mad.”
Goldsmith reiterates that the show was indeed safe and complaint to run, and backed with “overwhelming evidence”. He adds, “we have been left stunned by the decision of the Municipal Building Surveyor not to grant a POPE permit and will now have to postpone the festival until 2026.”
A rep for Esoteric insists Goldsmith and his team held urgent meetings with the premier of Victoria and the minister for housing to ensure the event would go ahead.
More than 7,000 partygoers were expected to visit the festival site this weekend, for what would have been its eighth edition. Tickets, organisers said earlier in the week, were
nearly sold-out.
Many turned to Esoteric’s social pages to voice their frustrations at the late call and the flimsy communication. One Instagram user suggests the situation could descend into chaos, as “people have been waiting in the heat for hours, many of them drinking, and now they’re all getting turned back out onto the roads”.
Looking to the future, Goldsmith implores ticketholders to hang onto their stubs for the next edition. Patrons will be notified about the cancellation and offered a full refund.
