The Southbound music festival has been cancelled due to the raging bush fires sweeping across the state’s south west.
The three day music festival was scheduled to start tomorrow night but now roads between Perth and Busselton are only open to essential travel.
The bush fire that started from a lightening strike on Wednesday has affected the towns of Waroona, Harvey, Hamel and Yarloop and Preston Beach, and the surrounding areas.
The sudden growth of the fire has left organisers no opportunity to relocate the festival to another location and it is no longer safe for the thousands of concert goers to travel to the area.
“Everyone on site is absolutely devastated as we were working so hard to bring the best Southbound yet. Please understand at this time we will be extremely busy dealing with the cancellation and our thoughts are with those in danger due to the nearby fire.” said Sunset Event’s director David Chitty.
The iconic festival was set to feature a mix of international and local artists including Courtney Barnett, Bloc Party, Disclosure, Django Django, Gang of Youths, Kurt Vile, Mac Demarco, Toro Y Moi and many others.
Statement from Sunset Events below
SOUTHBOUND 2016 CANCELLED DUE TO FIRES
It is with great regret that we have to announce the cancellation of Southbound 2016, due to the fire situation in the festivals surrounding areas. After ongoing communications and information provided from the West Australian Police, Main Roads Department and the Department of Fire and Emergency Services, we have no option but to cancel this year’s event. We cannot compromise patron safety and proceed knowing people’s lives are at risk getting to the event.
The only alternate route given both main highways are closed is now compromised. The alternative access to the event communicated earlier today is now only open for essential travel. As of news recently to hand festival patrons are now not able to use this road leaving us with no access to the festival site.
First and foremost our thoughts are with our local community of the South West, in what has been a challenging day, with more challenges to come. We give all our love and support to our local family in this intense time of stress.
The fire, which started Wednesday afternoon and reached emergency status during the night and into Thursday morning, has left us with no time to relocate prior to gates opening tomorrow.
“Everyone on site is absolutely devastated as we were working so hard to bring the best Southbound yet. Please understand at this time we will be extremely busy dealing with the cancellation and our thoughts are with those in danger due to the nearby fire.” David Chitty, Director.
Information regarding ticket refunds will be released on Wednesday 13th January. Please rest assured Southbound patrons will receive a full refund on tickets purchased via official channels. Please sit tight at this time until further information is made available on Wednesday.
For a full list of road closures, visit mainroads.wa.gov.au and to keep updated with all alerts and warnings, visit http://www.dfes.wa.gov.au/alerts/Pages/default.aspx.
