Newly Announced Coastal Festival Axed By Promoter

Having called off the long-running Great Southern Blues Festival in Narooma last August, promoter Neil Mumme announced a few months later that the festival would be back in 2016, albeit as a new event in collaboration with the Narooma Oyster Festival. However, in disappointing news today, Mumme has made a statement revealing that this new event would no longer go ahead either.

Mumme writes, "There have been some complications out of our control that are yet to be resolved. As a result of these issues we do not have enough time to produce an event for this coming October.

"Initially we planned to join with the successful Narooma Oyster Festival but the complications we are working through will not allow that to happen this year."

Despite the festival's cancellation, the longstanding Narooma Oyster Festival is scheduled to go ahead as planned on Sunday, 2 October, with Mumme assuring punters that next year they are "extremely optimistic [about] presenting a new and exciting event".

The initial cancellation of the 20-year-old Great Southern Blues Festival came just weeks after the promoter claimed his ticket sales were stunted because of then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott's "unrelenting dialogue on terrorism". 

"Surely the Prime Minister must understand that if he keeps up this rhetoric, Australians will think twice about leaving home and going to the football, attending festivals or just moving about doing the things we like to do," Mumme said.