Industry Dealt Another 'Massive Blow' As Major Melb Event Put On Hold 'Indefinitely'

Following news last week that the start of Melbourne's Leaps & Bounds Festival had been shut down due to the city’s latest COVID lockdown, it’s today been announced the major event has been “put on hold indefinitely”.

The confirmation follows yesterday’s news that Victoria’s lockdown had been extended, resulting in Leaps & Bounds postponing over 100 events.

Brunswick Ballroom booker Mary Mihelakos, who had organised Fitzroyalty for this year’s Leaps & Bounds and previously served as Festival Producer from 2013 until 2016, told The Music the news is “devastating”.

“We thought we were getting out of this mess… I didn’t see this [lockdown] coming,” Mihelakos said.

“We really needed these events, because it’s been a pretty crappy 18 months. The music industry really needed this event to happen.

“When you put all this work into it and there’s no end result it’s quite frustrating.”

Originally scheduled to commence last Friday, this year’s arts and music program contained 66 unique events and over 99 gigs, which would have employed more than 1,500 artists, producers, technicians and event staff.

“Venues are haemorrhaging and the worst part of it is, we went through this last year and we thought we were out of it, so it’s just such a massive blow to be back here again when we thought we were through the worst of it.

“It actually puts the future of these events at risk.”

Earlier this week, Sean Simmons of Press Play booking agency, who produced four Live At Charcoal Lane shows for Leaps & Bounds 2021, told The Music they were “scrambling to try and work on some kind of contingency plan to reschedule”.

“But we’re not certain yet as to when that will be,” Simmons said.

“But the message is, we hope to reschedule all or most of the events. We’re just waiting for the council to let us know what their plans are.

“Support those venues, support those restaurants, support those record stores… once we’re out [of lockdown], if people can buy two records instead of one, two drinks instead of one and all that kind of stuff, it’ll really help all the businesses involved.

“And buy some merchandise from the artist, just chip in where you can.”

On Monday, organisers behind BIGSOUND 2021 confirmed that this September’s event in Brisbane had been cancelled due to the latest outbreak of the Delta strain of COVID, combined with a slow vaccination rollout.

For more details on Leaps & Bounds 2021, head to the festival’s website.