A five-day "psychedelic" music festival has been cancelled just one night before it was set to begin after a building surveyor refused to grant the necessary permit.
The Esoteric Music Festival was expected to be held over the long weekend in the regional Victorian town of Donald, south-west of Bendigo.
Managing Director Sam Goldsmith said the team was "utterly devastated" by the outcome.
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The festival's previous five-year planning permit expired last year, and an application for a new ten-year permit was submitted in September.
Organisers were offered a lifeline after the Buloke Shire Council voted to approve a one-year planning permit at its council meeting on Monday.
In a statement, the council explained the festival's application for a Place of Public Entertainment Occupancy Permit (POPE-OP) had been refused on Tuesday by its municipal building surveyor.
The building surveyor, employed by the council but independent of it, made the decision, and councillors are unable to overturn it.
"The decision to refuse the POPE-OP aligns with the concerns raised by council officers in their recommendation to refuse the planning permit application. These include ongoing safety and compliance concerns as well as the lack of adherence to last year's POPE-OP," the council said.
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"The event organisers made an appeal to the State Building Surveyor, Steven Baxas, to intervene. The State Building Surveyor has expressed his support for Council's decision to refuse to issue a POPE-OP.
"With the POPE-OP application refused, the event organisers have been advised to cancel the event. Ticket holders are advised to not attend the event as the event does not have the required approvals and to contact the event organisers for more information."
At least 120 festivalgoers reported gastroenteritis symptoms after attending the festival last year.
Given the outbreak of shigellosis affecting hundreds of festivalgoers last year, the shire last week said it was was "not satisfied that adequate public health and safety measures are in place to support the granting of a new planning permit".
Shigellosis is a gastro strain characterised by a sudden onset of diarrhoea, fever, nausea, vomiting and abdominal cramps,
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Organisers 'utterly devastated'
Thousands of festival-goers have had already arrived in the regional town ahead of the news.
Managing Director Sam Goldsmith confirmed the cancellation on social media last night.
"To say we are disappointed is an understatement – we are gutted," he said.
"This is a devastating blow for all involved – from our patrons to the local businesses that have been planning for this all year."
Goldsmith, who has been working to secure the necessary permits since news broke last week about a potential cancellation, described the decision as "bureaucracy and politics gone mad."
"Despite overwhelming evidence that the Esoteric Music Festival is safe and compliant to run, we have been left stunned by the decision of the Municipal Building Surveyor not to grant a POPE permit and will now have to postpone the festival until 2026," he said.
"Since 2017 this event has been a lifeline for Victoria's regional tourism and live music scene, injecting more than $15 million into the local economy and supporting thousands of jobs in the Wimmera Mallee region.
"We implore all of our patrons, please hold onto your ticket for next year so that we can continue running this event and supporting Victoria's north-west region as we have for the past eight years and will come back even stronger in 2026."
People holding a ticket will be contacted directly and will be offered a full refund if they can't make the next event.
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