A music festival business has been forced to cancel its upcoming event on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, citing the sting of the cost-of-living crisis as the reason.
Day festival event Coastal Jam was called off just over a week before it was scheduled to go ahead in Rosebud this Saturday, January 13.
The decision was not made lightly, Coastal Jam Festival founder Adam Metwally said in a video shared to the business’ Instagram account.
“Everyone that I know has been feeling the sting of the cost of living crisis and one of the consequences of this has been the much slower than usual and very much last minute sales for boutique events like Coastal Jam,” he said in the video.
“They only have enough money for a few things now, naturally leading to the major festivals, massive international tours being the priority which I fully understand.
“Unfortunately it’s led to smaller boutique festivals and events such as ours to fall by the wayside.”
Metwally said the festival, which he had been running for the past six years, would have led to a “catastrophic loss” had it gone forward.
“I did everything I could do keep ticket prices as low as possible while also trying to put together a solid lineup,” he said.
“But, sadly, it wasn’t enough this time.
“I’ve tried everything I could think of to try and steer the ship back in the right direction, and I have to make the call, but nothing I have come up with has worked.”
The festival, which has hosted tens of thousands of fans at previous events, had Lime Cordiale, Austin Millz, Ben Gerrans, Bryce Vine and DICE scheduled to play this year.
They had sold out their first release tickets about three weeks ago.
Anticipating revellers were understanding of the decision, but disappointed.
“Sorry to hear mate! It’s tough out there atm.. great work on providing options,” one social media user said.
“You can see, and hear, how shattered you are. It’s never easy to make tough calls. Thank you for trying,” another added.
“Sorry to hear. Great lineup and it would have been a huge amount of effort. Best for the next,” a third said.
There will be three options for those who purchased a ticket, with a full refund being one of them.
(9 NEWS)
