Golden Plains Cancels 2022 Event: ‘We Tried Incredibly Hard’

Much-loved Victorian festival Golden Plains has been cancelled for the second year in a row.

After being one of the last major events to go ahead in Victoria ahead of the national lockdown in 2020, organisers announced late last year that the 2021 event would not go ahead, and it’s now been confirmed that neither will next March’s festival.

“We tried incredibly hard to make it happen. Turned every stone a hundred times. Looked at it from every possible, and impossible, angle. We allowed as much time and space as we could,” reads a statement from the festival.

“In the end, there wasn’t any one single thing that knocked it out. More a seriously sizeable series of things which proved – at this particular moment in time, for our particular circumstances – insurmountable for Golden Plains to take flight.

“Hosting twelve thousand fun-lovers across three days and two nights in the great outdoors is always a massive undertaking and one we approach with rigour and enthusiasm.

“The free-range fun-of-every-flavour – all the good stuff that lets us get loose (while keeping our shit together) – relies on each underpinning component being present and robust and all the moving parts being in tune. Not just for a day, but for the entirety of an epic long weekend at The Supernatural Amphitheatre.

“This means deep consideration and care for every aspect of your presence here on the farm, from start to finish, through two sunups and sundowns, highs, lows, mediums, all manner of human wants and needs, and every kind of atmospheric condition. The time of your life. Then everyone safely home at the end, in time for tea. Golden.

“It hurts to think that I won’t be able to host you on the slight incline of The Sup’ this Autumn, to offer up all the goodness this sweet little parcel of land provides in so many ways to so many people.

“But when I genuinely examine the facts, for our unique thing, at this unique time, there’s no other decision I can arrive at. The circumstances we are in do not match the circumstances required for this Golden Plains to happen. It’s nobody’s fault. It’s no one thing.

“Despite all the will in the world, we can’t make this Golden. I want to dearly thank everyone, from far and wide, that tried to help clear our path. The feeling is almost overwhelming and undeniably inspiring, and I’m immensely grateful. I also want to thank everybody who has sent messages throughout this long time apart.

“The energy that came our way to turn Golden Plains on has tripled our resolve for a very special 30th Meredith next December, and a very golden GP XV after that.

“For now, I’m looking forward to a little bit of rest and recovery, some time to lament, and to enjoy the things that Summer brings, as we again set controls for the heart of the Supernatural.”

Check out highlights from last year’s event here.