A MUSIC festival expected to draw up to 1000 people to Lake Bonney has been postponed until March due to COVID-19 restrictions.
The Acoustic Vibes Festival was scheduled to take place this Saturday, January 23 at Sedunary Park in Barmera, featuring acts including Diesel, Thirsty Merc and Reece Mastin.
However, event organisers were forced to reschedule the event following changes to travel restrictions for South Australian visitors from the Greater Sydney region.
Festival promoter David Storer, who has also rescheduled an event in Mt Barker, said scheduling music events around COVID-19 restrictions had been “very frustrating”.
“It was very disappointing to have to reschedule, especially because South Australia is good to go as far as concerts are concerned… but we can’t get acts like Thirsty Merc and Diesel in from Sydney,” he said.
“It’s strange because Bernard Fanning was allowed to come across last weekend and they made an exception for that.
“Tennis players are coming in… and they’ve made an exception for that.
“We don’t want to whinge about it, but it’s tough trying to work out which acts will be able to come.
“We’ve had to reschedule dates, and everyone is a bit gun shy because we don’t want to have to keep doing it.
“We could move them to the second half of the year, but we would much rather do them before winter and give people something to enjoy.
“Some of the acts are from Brisbane, some are from Melbourne and some are from Sydney, so all the stars have to align before we go ahead.”
The festival will now be held on Sunday, March 7.
“We’re hoping people will be able to attend on the Sunday of the March long weekend,” Mr Storer said.
“We’re hoping visitors will come along, because it is all about bringing new people in and giving locals a good day to enjoy.
“Our events are not crowded or congested, and they never were – we haven’t changed our style of event because of COVID.”
Mr Storer said he hoped attendance would be high, despite the rescheduling.
“Lake Bonney is a great venue and we have all the right ingredients for a great event… we just need people to get on board and come along, which they were and still are,” he said.
“This is just a hiccup along the way.”
Refunds are available for those who had already purchased tickets.
“Everyone who originally bought tickets will be sent a new ticket automatically, but if they can’t make that date they can request a refund,” Mr Storer said.