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City of Wollongong

Council’s Music at the Drive-in event cancelled

Thursday 23 July 2020

Wollongong City Council has cancelled its Music at the Drive-in: Sons of the East event amid concerns with local agencies about Coronavirus.

In planning this event Council has been monitoring closely the advice from NSW Health and updates related to Coronavirus cases. Since updated information has been provided to Council advising this event was not supported, we have taken the step to cancel it.

“We know this will disappoint those who were looking forward to this Drive-in concert,’’ Wollongong City Lord Mayor Councillor Gordon Bradbery AM said.

“However, our focus is on the health, safety and wellbeing of all in our community and we must react to the advice from the experts. Throughout this pandemic Council has responded to the latest information from the NSW State Government and NSW Health to ensure we’ve mechanisms in place to support our community and we will continue to do so.

“We only have to look at Victoria and see how quickly things can change and escalate in relation to Coronavirus. This is the right decision for this event, at this time.’’

Council, as well as our key advisory agencies including NSW Health, the Local Emergency Operations Centre, and NSW Police, had a number of concerns about the event which together led to its cancellation. These concerns were the challenge of contract tracing up to 2000 people attending the event, the concert drawing people from outside the area and encouraging non-essential travel, and vehicles containing people from more than one household.

“We’re sorry to cancel this event as our intent and focus was on providing a safe entertainment option for our community as well as giving people involved in live music locally an opportunity to work during this time,’’ Cr Bradbery said.

“We recently held a Drive-in movie event at Kembla Grange which was a great success. However, things are constantly changing related to Coronavirus and the risk associated with this event planned for August 2 is just too great.’’

People who have booked tickets through the event will receive a refund through Eventbrite. This will be arranged over the coming days.

Music at the Drive-In: Sons of the East was to be presented by Council, with media partners i98FM and WIN and sponsor Horizon Bank at Bulli Showground on Sunday 2 August.

The event was to have featured indie folk band Sons of the East and support from local artists Corey Legge, The Groove, and Kay Proudlove.


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