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Victorian electronic music fans have been left heartbroken after a planned music festival was cancelled at the eleventh hour this week.
The Esoteric Psychedelic Circus Festival was set to kick off on Friday in the regional town of Donald in Victoria’s north-west.
It was slated for five days and promised a slew of Australian and international EDM acts including popular Japan-based duo Akari System.
Buloke Shire Council gave the festival the green light on Monday, despite staff recommendations the permit may be denied due to health and safety concerns, The Age reported
Just hours out from doors open on Thursday, it was revealed the festival’s application for a Place of Public Entertainment Occupancy Permit (POPE-OP) had been rejected by the council’s building surveyor.
In a statement to the Age, a council spokesperson said organisers’ lack of compliance with the previous year’s permit were among the reasons for the rejection.
Victorian electronic music fans have been left heartbroken after a planned music festival was cancelled at the eleventh hour this week
‘The POPE-OP is a requirement under the Building Act 1993 and is not a decision that can be overturned by councillors,’ the spokesperson said.
‘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 spokesperson said the event organisers made an appeal to the State Building Surveyor Steven Baxas to intervene, but Baxas sided with the council’s surveyor.
In a long winded statement shared to the festival’s Instagram page, organiser Sam Goldsmith said he was ‘gutted’ at the last-minute cancellation.
‘We are utterly devastated to announce that Donald’s Esoteric Music Festival will not be going ahead this weekend,’ he wrote.
‘To say we are disappointed is an understatement—we are gutted.’
The Esoteric Psychedelic Circus Festival was set to kick off on Friday in the regional town of Donald in Victoria’s north-west
It was slated for five days and promised a slew of Australian and international EDM acts including popular Japan-based duo Akari System
‘This is a devastating blow for all involved—from our patrons to the local businesses that have been planning for this all year. It is bureaucracy and politics gone mad.’
Continuing, Sam claimed he had been left ‘stunned’ at the reasons given for the festival cancellation, claiming organisers had previously adhered to the POPE-OP.
‘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,’ Sam continued.
‘Since 2017 this event has been a lifeline for Victoria’s regional tourism and live music scene, injecting more than $15million into the local economy and supporting thousands of jobs in the Wimmera Mallee region.’
Sam rounded out the post telling revellers to hold on to their tickets as organisers planned for the festival to return in 2026.
The post was met with a flurry of comments from crestfallen festival goers.
‘THIS IS HEARTBREAKING,’ one follower wrote. ‘My heart breaks for our beloved community.
‘Spaces like this are HEALING! My thoughts are with the team who have been working so hard to make this festival happen.’
In a long winded statement shared to the festival’s Instagram page, organiser Sam Goldsmith said he was ‘gutted’ at the last-minute cancellation
Another chimed in, revealing the extreme lengths they went to in order to attend the now cancelled festival.
‘We just arrived in Melbourne. We had our flight cancelled 3x and to not miss the festival, we ended up renting a car, drove 22h to arrive in Melbourne,’ they wrote.
‘Just have finished the groceries to head to the festival, and on the way out of the supermarket BOOM the bomb has been planted and exploded on our lap, what a devastating situation.’
A third chimed in with a similar yet more succinct: ‘Well… only had 312 kms left of 900.’
It comes after last year’s festival hit the headlines after hundreds of festival-goers reported gastroenteritis symptoms.
A number of these cases were confirmed as shigella gastroenteritis—a highly-contagious gastro strain characterised by a sudden onset of diarrhoea, abdominal cramps, nausea and vomiting.
‘People who attended Esoteric Festival who have symptoms should get tested for Shigella with a stool sample,’ said Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Ben Cowie at the time.
