Council Dismisses Earthcore Cancellation Claims As 'Clear Untruths'

Mitchell Shire Council has slammed allegations made by organisers of the Earthcore festival that "corrupt town planning officers" were responsible for pulling the event's permit last week. 

As reported by Music Feeds on Tuesday, organisers issued a statement, disputing claims made by a number of acts who cancelled their sets just days out due to alleged lack of payment, and called out the Council for allegedly retracting a permit to hold the trance festival at a site in Pyalong.

Mitchell Shire Council has slammed Earthcore's allegations in a new statement given to The Music today. 

"It is very disappointing that Council has to correct clear untruths and inaccuracies in the statement issued by Earthcore," a Council spokesperson said.

"Council issued a permit for the Earthcore event to be held in 2016, with the option for permission to be granted for a further event in 2017 if certain conditions were met, including a requirement for any serious concerns from 2016 to be addressed with updated event management plans endorsed by Council.

"The applicant did not request permission by the required dates, and chose event dates that weren’t covered in the original permit. Therefore, permission for the 2017 event could not be granted by Council.

"Council also had significant concerns about patron safety, traffic management, security and noise, and those concerns were not adequately addressed by the applicant prior."

The last week has been a disastrous one for the festival, after it was forced to cancel its Sydney, WA and Qld events at the last minute, while a punter attending the Melbourne leg was charged with indecent assault.