More gigs across the country have been wiped out as the Delta strain of COVID continues to tighten restrictions in Australia.

A recent outbreak in South Australia will see the state enter a one-week lockdown from 6:00pm tonight, with limited reasons to leave home as officials confirm five cases have been linked to the current Delta cluster.

Additionally, Melbourne’s lockdown will be extended for a further seven days, until midnight next Tuesday, July 27.

As a result of the SA lockdown, Music SA's Umbrella Festival has been put on hold, with over 80 performances cancelled.

“We were so thrilled for Umbrella to return after the devastating impacts on the Australian live music industry in 2020," Music SA General Manager Kim Roberts said.

"This news is really difficult for us to be faced with only five days into our 2021 festival, but obviously, everyone’s safety is paramount.

“The Music SA team have been working hard on delivering Umbrella over the past 18 months, putting as many contingencies in place as possible to adhere to social distancing requirements. But the cancellation of over 80 live music performances over the next week is something that we hoped not to be faced with. It’s heartbreaking for everyone involved.”

The restrictions across Victoria have also wreaked havoc on a number of major events and tours, including Leaps & Bounds Festival, while ongoing uncertainty across the country has forced BIGSOUND to cancel its September dates.

“It’s important for everyone outside of the music industry to know that we’ve never come out of lockdown,” Australian Live Music Business Council Interim Chairman Stephen Wade of Select Music told The Music today.

“When you’re thinking about our industry, think about the fact that for the past 16 months, we have never come out of full lockdown.

“When people go, ‘Aw, but NSW wasn’t in lockdown for six months,’ our industry was because if I booked a show at Enmore Theatre, 2,500 people couldn’t go.

“From a business perspective, that’s where it gets tough.”

It’s clear that constant lockdowns and venue restrictions are crippling the music industry and having a huge impact on those working within it, and for many, there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel, as evident with the recent Delta outbreak.

“For the first time since it all started, there’s a definite air in the business that everybody has just hit a wall,” Oztix CEO and Australian Live Music Business Council (ALMBC) founding board member Brian ‘Smash’ Chladil told The Music earlier this month.

“It really feels like everyone is on the ropes and can’t do it anymore. The amount of people I’ve spoken to in the past couple of weeks that have said, ‘I don’t know if I can keep doing this. I just can’t summon the energy to reignite it.’”

Our Golden Friend owner/director Lorrae McKenna recently told The Music that the ongoing lack of government support and uncertainty is “really frustrating”.

“They have to figure something else out because closing the borders every time is just… I don’t know how the live music industry is going to survive if we have potentially another six months to a year of this, if we don’t get vaccination rates up, that’s probably what it’s looking like,” she said.

“Booking tours at the moment is like a game of roulette; you just pick dates and hope for the best. You put your money on a number and hope that it’s not going to be a time when we’re in lockdown again.

“I look in my iCal and I see all the shows we have booked for the next month, in August, and I just think, ‘Are these actually going to happen?’”

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