International Tours Unlikely This Year With Borders To ‘Probably’ Remain Closed Until 2022

Australia's Chief Medical Officer believes that the country may not open its borders this year meaning we may be waiting even longer for international artists to return to Australia. 

Appearing on ABC's News Breakfast program this morning, Professor Brendan Murphy told the hosts that despite COVID-19 vaccinations beginning to roll out in the coming months that it's unlikely to mean an immediate reopening of international travel. 

"I think the answer is probably no..." said Murphy. 

"Even if we have a lot of the population vaccinated, we don't know whether that will prevent transmission of the virus and it's likely that quarantine will continue for some time. 

"One of the things about this virus is that the rule book is being made up as we go. I was just saying this to the Prime Minister, I don't want to predict more than two or three months ahead. The world is changing. 

"So I think at the moment we've got this light at the end of the tunnel - this vaccine - so we're going to go as safely and as fast as we can to get our population vaccinated and then we'll look at what happens."

International artists like Faith No More and Violent Femmes have already begun delaying their rescheduled 2021 shows late last year, moving them to 2022. 

Promoter Michael Chugg told The Music last year that he also believes that international tours will be off the table for Australia in 2021. 

“I don’t think we’ll have any international [artists] coming in until 2022," he said. 

“It might open up in late ’21, but I don’t think it’ll be any earlier. I mean, if you look at America and the UK, which is where 90% of the international acts come from, there’s no way you could be opening the borders to them at this stage and it’s not going to go away quickly. 

“Hopefully we’ll be able to do some things later next year, but I can’t see the Government allowing the borders to open up. Hopefully, we’ll get a bubble with New Zealand, and Australian and New Zealand bands can start playing.”

While international touring may be a little further away, Australia is seeing the return of local music events with festivals like Summer Sounds and Strawberry Fields, and the newly announced Sounds Better Together and Play On The Plains events.