Festival ahoy! In the midst of rising COVID-19 cases, next month’s Riverboats Music Festival will be going ahead as scheduled.
After the recent COVID-19-related staffing issues in the region’s hospitality sector, festival director David Frazer has confirmed the much-loved local festival will be going ahead on February 18-20.
“It hasn’t quite been the start to the year that we were all anticipating and hoping for, but certainly, unless government directions change, we’re 100 per cent committed to moving forward with the festival next month,” Mr Frazer said.
“We’ve got all our plans in place: we have a very robust COVID-safe plan that we’ve been developing and refining on a daily basis it feels like, for about six months now.
“We’re certainly ready to deliver an event that’s absolutely as safe as we can possibly make it for our patrons.
“It’s a festival that means a lot to a lot of people, it was sorely missed last year, and it’s been an incredibly challenging time for the Australian music industry more broadly.
“We’re really excited that we’ll be able to open the gates again in four weeks’ time and put on a really good show.”
While other events have fallen away due to the rise in cases, the government guidelines have allowed for Riverboats to go ahead due to its size and outdoor venue.
“There have been no changes to government-imposed restrictions on events of our size,” Mr Frazer said.
“There have been some changes to events that are 30,000 people and over, but one of the things we have going for us, and we want to stress to our patrons, is that we are fully outdoors, and that puts us in a low-risk category according to the DHHS.
“It doesn’t mean that there aren’t some personal protections that patrons may like to consider implementing while they’re on-site, and we’re encouraging people to wear masks when they’re not eating or drinking, however what is mandatory is that they’re double-vaccinated.
“We will be checking absolutely everyone prior to their arrival on-site: that includes artists, our 250 volunteers, crew, even the bloke delivering the cool rooms, everyone needs to be double-vaccinated before they’re on-site.
“That’s one of our key safety measures to make sure we’re delivering the safest event possible.
“We’ll be following guidelines to the letter, and we’ll have hand sanitiser stations around the site, you’ll barely be able to move without bumping into a hand sanitiser station.
“Like any other small business operator, we’re crossing our ‘t’s and dotting our ‘i’s, and it will be so wonderful to see everyone back down there.”
Despite many people being in isolation and testing positive in the hospitality sector nationwide, all artists on the line-up will be performing as scheduled at this stage.
“We have had no changes to the line-up, but we’ve been really supported by our artists and crew, and if there are any changes in the lead-up, our patrons will be the first to hear about it,” Mr Frazer said.
“We’ll be giving people as much notice as possible, but for now there’s a real excitement to put this on in a safe outdoor setting.”
This year’s 10th anniversary festival sold out in a record-breaking six days.
“We sold out in six days this year, and our previous record was 10 days,” Mr Frazer said.
“It was really exciting, no-one forgot about us over the years, which is nice to see.
“There are a handful of Friday night sideshow tickets available, but our weekend tickets are all gone.
“That is a really good indication that people are really hungry for these events to return, and return in a safe manner.”
The Riverboats Music Festival takes place from February 18-20 under the gum trees at the Aquatic Reserve in Echuca.