Woolgoolga’s Blues & Berries festival another COVID-19 casualty Coffs Coast Coffs Coast News by News Of The Area - Modern Media - September 9, 2020 COVID-19 has forced the cancellation of the popular Blues & Berries Festival at Woolgoolga, scheduled for 1 November. Photo supplied: Blues and Berries. ANOTHER popular Woolgoolga tourist event has been cancelled due to COVID-19; this time around it’s the annual Blues & Berries festival. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02) 4981 8882. Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au The family friendly event, which attracts around 4000 people to Woolgoolga Beach Reserve, was scheduled for Sunday, 1 November. The festival celebrates blues and roots music and berries by the beach, and features street food with a berry twist, market stalls promoting the area’s local berry produce and farm tours to Costa Berries Farm. This year would have been the festival’s fourth year of operation. “Due to Covid-19 current restrictions and regulations, we are unable to proceed with our Blues and Berries Festival with outdoor gatherings of more than 20 people still banned in NSW, as are music festivals,” Blues & Berries festival organiser Sherry Price stated on the festival’s Facebook site last week. “It’s just devastating, it has just been one thing after the other this year,” Ms Price told News Of The Area. “All of our major events have been cancelled, that (Blues & Berries) was the last major one to go. “We lost three in August, the Curryfest, Blues and Berries, everything we had scheduled is gone.” Ms Price said her company Another Tasty Event was unable to run any festivals this year, other than the weekly Village Farmers Market at Woolgoolga, and had lost a great deal of revenue this year due to COVID-19. “We lost money from Curryfest because we did a lot of advertising for it in January, and that is just money that you can’t get back,” she said. “So we will be starting next year on the backfoot. “The year has been very draining.” The Blues and Berries festival had received Destination NSW State Government and Coffs Harbour City Council event funding this year, which Ms Price hopes can be carried over to next year’s festival. The popular event will return on 7 November, 2021. “We will be back with an awesome festival,” Ms Price said. By Emma DARBIN
