Boutique Victorian Festival Forced Into Last-Minute Cancellation

The year 2015 was supposed to be an overdue return to glory for boutique Victorian festival Inca Roads but it appears that dream won't come to pass, following the news from organisers this afternoon that the event has been forced to cancel, only weeks out from its previously scheduled dates later this month.

Inca Roads announced its line-up early last month, and was to play weekend home from 20-22 March to acts such as ScotDrakula, Pikelet, The Cactus Channel, Jonny Telafone, The Harpoons, The Pretty Littles, Baptism Of Uzi, Totally Mild, and many more — but unfortunately, according to festival co-director Daniel Camilleri, the event was unable to receive enough interest from membership sales this year to enable the non-profit festival to continue, a development Camilleri described as "devastating".

"This is extremely saddening," Camilleri wrote on Facebook this afternoon. "For our team, you, the bands, the people who have supported Inca and made it their favourite little festival. Ultimately we do this for the love of it, as volunteers, solely to provide an incredible weekend of Australian and Melbourne music for those people that care.

Camilleri goes on to detail that festival staff have been facing a series of obstacles over the past four years that have added to the complexities of staging the festival, "including but not limited to: after 10 months, council not making a decision on the permit in 2013; council approving the permit but objectors taking us to VCAT; beating the crap out of the objectors and running the 2013 event with huge success; council knocking us back in 2014 after we had organised the whole event; postponing and moving to a new location for 2015; getting ready for approval for the 2015 permit and now this".

Despite the sombre news, Camilleri assured punters that refunds are being organised for all ticket-holders, with a tentative completion date of Friday (give or take bank processing time), and finished with a message of support for local fans of live music:

"People take for granted the incredible amount of creative talent Melbourne and Australia has to offer," he wrote. "Go out and see a show, spend a few dollars on an EP and support the industry that makes this city and country so amazing."

You can read his full post here.