Electric Avenue music festival in Christchurch is the latest event to fall victim to Covid-19 restrictions. Photo / George Heard
New Zealand's largest one-day music festival is the latest event to fall victim to the recent increase in Covid-19 restrictions.
Electric Avenue Music Festival was due to take place in Hagley Park on Saturday, February 26 with 30,000 people in attendance, but organisers Team Event have today announced that the festival will no longer go ahead.
The festival was on the verge of selling out, with over 90 per cent of tickets having already been sold.
The event's cancellation represents a "significant economic loss to the Canterbury region", organisers say, with more than half of the tickets having been sold to people coming from other parts of the country.
Festival director Callam Mitchell said the cancellation was a devastating decision to make.
"It's heartbreaking to lose 12 months of work, not just for our team but for our suppliers, casual event staff and of course the artists too," he said.
It is the third festival Mitchell has had to cancel in the past week, with the Great Kiwi Beer Festival and South Island Wine & Food Festival being axed immediately following the move into the red traffic light setting.
An announcement about Nostalgia Festival will be made tomorrow.
Mitchell is mourning the loss of his entire event season, with more than 60,000 people expected to have collectively attended the events this summer.
"We'll take some time to get over this, then we'll get cracking on planning a full season of events for next summer," he said.
All tickets from the 2022 event will automatically roll over for the 2023 event, however customers will also have the option of claiming a refund if they can no longer attend.
Air New Zealand recently announced that customers with flights booked before 11.59pm on February 28 will also have the option of changing their flights or claiming a flight credit.
'For the unluckiest people, we are very lucky.'