One of Australia’s most beloved, and longest-running, music festivals has become the latest victim of COVID-19, with the Meredith Music Festival set to take a year off in 2020.
Fresh from the news that events such as Festival X will not be returning to the live music scene for 2020, Victoria’s free-spirited Meredith Music Festival has echoed those same sentiments, revealing that its 30th anniversary edition will not take place this year.
“Like much of the planet, life in Postcode 3333 must contend with a pandemic and adjust to a different beat, for the time being,” organisers wrote in a statement, accompanied by the traditional Aunty Meredith sign-off.
“Which brings us to a break in regular programming. A rest. Something which, in itself, is not such an unusual part of the Supernatural trip.”
The Meredith Music Festival will not take place this year.
A note from Aunty:https://t.co/PJZFXh4Ddu pic.twitter.com/DCYweb3i9l
— Aunty Meredith (@auntymeredith) September 3, 2020
The statement also provided readers with something of a history lesson, noting that this isn’t the first time Meredith has been postponed, with the inaugural edition of the festival being pushed back one year from its planned debut.
“Something to do with preparations being heavy on enthusiasm but light on finance, know-how, bands and a few other odds and ends,” the statement explained. “Mary and Jack [Nolan, founders] politely suggested that kicking off with a fallow year might be the sensible thing to do.
“Maybe it’s fitting that the 30th Meredith will have to cool its heels for a year as well.”
Traditionally opening its annual ticket ballot around July and releasing its lineup in the following weeks, longtime attendees would likely have assumed that such an announcement from Aunty Meredith was forthcoming, though had held out hope that it would be business as usual at the Supernatural Amphitheatre in December.
The statement from organisers closes by noting that while the Meredith Music Festival may be taking a year off, there remains an “other light on the horizon”, with the status of its sister festival, Golden Plains, still unknown at the current time. “We’ll update you on that as soon as we can,” Aunty concludes.
The 2019 edition of the Meredith Music Festival featured the likes of Liam Gallagher, Róisín Murphy, Briggs, Amyl & The Sniffers, and more.
