A Music Festival Set For Melbourne This Weekend Has Been Cancelled

The Age has reported that a planned dance music festival set to take place in the Melbourne suburb of Port Melbourne has been cancelled at the last minute.

Said to have sold up to 4,000 tickets for this weekend's event, Paradigm had been set to feature over 20 DJ's including Scotland's Will Atkinson and Melbourne's legendary Boogs.

The story claims that thousands of revellers have been left stranded and that the cancellation has left "several international DJs without a gig and event organisers out of pocket."

Event director Lev Shani told The Age that he was devastated by the state government’s decision on Friday to cancel the festival, which had been postponed from April last year and had faced a series of further delays since then due to the pandemic.

Organisers said that they had complied with the state’s strict health guidelines, including a ban on dancing and a requirement that every patron remain seated. "We’ve done everything in our power and followed every single rule and introduced more control measures than required," Shani said.

Headliner Atkinson posted on Facebook lamenting the last-minute cancellation, "To the government, you have dragged this out for weeks. You spit in the face of this industry but quick to green light full capacity sports events. There is no continuity. This goes for UK too. I genuinely feel there is vendetta against our scene. A scene which thrives on connection, love and one language we all speak - music. I am at a loss with the decisions." 

The Age story also reports that some in the hospitality industry were rankled that the festival may have been allowed to go ahead given venues still have strict limits on patron numbers dependent on floor-space, with a maximum of 300 patrons. Others stood by the promoters calling for an easing of restrictions immediately.