FolkWorld announces cancellation of 2024 Fairbridge Festival

FolkWorld Inc. has announced the 2024 Fairbridge Festival has been cancelled, citing lagging ticket sales, increased production costs and as importantly, insufficient volunteers to put on a festival of this kind.

The news comes after several challenging years for the family-friendly music and arts festival. The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent border closures forced the cancellation of Fairbridge Festival in 2020 and 2022, while the 2021 festival was limited to Western Australian acts.

The board was then forced to cancel the 2023 event when concerns were raised about the impact the festival was having on the historic Fairbridge Village in Pinjarra. New restrictions included limiting capacity by approximately 50% and not being able to utilise some venues on site, forced Fairbridge to look for a new home.

Earlier this year, Folkworld announced the festival would return in 2024 in the new location of Edenvale Heritage Precinct and was scheduled to run from 5th to 7th April.

President of FolkWorld Inc. Jane Aberdeen, said the decision was heartbreaking for the Board and the team and shared “we carefully weighed up all risks, considered advice from staff about lagging tickets sales, increased costs and as important, insufficient volunteers, and decided the Festival could not proceed. We have worked tirelessly to identify potential solutions, and thank Festival Partner, the Shire of Murray, the state government and our membership for their ongoing collaboration.   

“We would like to extend this thanks to everyone who has supported the Festival and we look forward to sharing music, dance and camaraderie with you at our other events planned throughout the year and future festivals.”   

All ticket sales will be automatically refunded.

The cancellation adds to concerns about the future of music festivals as organisers of popular regional music event, Groovin the Moo, announced its cancellation last month, just two months out before its first 2024 event in South Australia.

Cattleyard Promotions, the organisers of the Groovin The Moo festival, cancelled the regional tour – also citing poor ticket sales.