COVID restrictions force cancellation of New Zealand Rhythm and Vines festival

New Zealand music festival Rhythm and Vines has been cancelled due to continuing uncertainty around COVID-19.

Originally the festival had been moved from the New Year to Easter, but with the New Zealand Government's alert restrictions still in place organisers will now be focus their attention on the 20th anniversary of the event at the end of the year.

Hamish Pinkham, Rhythm and Vines co-founder, told New Zealand news website Stuff "given the health condition of the country, it’s in our best interests to push things out until a safer period.

"These are big projects and we need a good lead-in time. We’re currently not seeing enough visibility to give us confidence for Easter.”

The end of 2021 festival had been postponed after host city Gisborne moved into the ‘red’ setting - which limits gatherings to 100 people - of the New Zealand Government’s Coronavirus alert level in December.

Subsequently, the city had moved into the ‘orange’ setting which meant the festival could have taken place with the use of COVID-19 vaccination passes. However, the festival had already been rescheduled to Easter by this point.

With the whole of New Zealand on the red setting since 23rd January events such as the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup - currently being co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia - have faced significant challenges.

With the ongoing uncertainty, Pinkham said that promoting the event had been difficult, adding "we had a lot of interest in it, but it never really got the momentum it deserved, just because of the situation.

“All the industry is feeling it - we’re seeing a lot of cancellations across the board. We need to be back to normality to run the event, and have people mingling throughout the venue. Until we see that visibility from the health guidelines, we’ll just wait.”

The 20th anniversary event is due to take place at the end of December, with a number of international acts already confirmed.