Fairbridge Festival cancelled again in 2023

The Fairbridge Festival has been cancelled for the third year running and won’t be returning to Fairbridge Village in the future.

The family-friendly music and camping event has been held at Fairbridge since 1993 but has been cancelled for the previous two years due to COVID-19.

Event organiser FolkWorld revealed last month they had concerns Fairbridge Village may no longer be a suitable venue for the festival.

On November 21 FolkWorld revealed that the 2023 festival would indeed be cancelled as they searched for alternative venues to hold future events.

FolkWorld President Drew Dymond said the board had reluctantly decided to cancel the festival following matters recently raised by Fairbridge WA.

“Although Fairbridge WA would still permit us to hire the venue for 2023, changing the festival plans to address the issues raised at this late stage would risk the integrity of the festival, and the capability of FolkWorld to deliver the experience our loyal members and supporters have come to love and deserve after 30 years,” Mr Dymond said.

The matters raised by Fairbridge WA to FolkWorld included biosecurity impacts on neighbouring land and the ageing infrastructure which could not accommodate such large crowds.

Fairbridge also revealed to FolkWorld that going forward they planned to focus on its core business of education and tourism, and would not be making the village available to events like the Fairbridge Festival in the future.

Mr Dymond said FolkWorld will now focus its efforts on securing a suitable venue for ongoing events.

“Encouragingly, we have already received some warm and interesting invitations to consider as festival venues, and we would be more than happy to hear from shires and venues who are interested in collaborating to host this unique Western Australian event,” Dymond said.

Mr Dymond said the festival would continue to be a celebration of folk and global music, dance, culture and camping.

“While it is the end of a beautiful era, it’s not ‘the end’, just the next chapter in our long history of producing a world class family music festival and bringing folk and world music to the Western Australian community.”