‘When We Were Young’ music festival canceled Saturday due to high winds
Updated
Music lovers in Queensland were left stunned after the cancellation of a music festival held last weekend due to high winds.
The iconic event, billed as Australia’s largest music festival, was cancelled after heavy rainfall over the weekend.
Billed as the “biggest celebration of new music and culture in the world”, the event was due to feature more than 100 acts over two days of concerts in Brisbane’s F1 Arena and Convention Centre.
More than half of them are international acts, and the bulk of them are world-renowned.
Many of the acts were expected to perform outside in the flood-prone conditions.
“Unfortunately the event has been cancelled due to strong winds, high rainfall,” the organiser of the event, Q Stage Productions, said on Saturday.
The cancellation of the event came just days after Queensland’s Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced a “temporary” suspension of the state government’s plan to build a new coal train bypass.
“We are monitoring the situation closely to ensure the event goes ahead safely,” the premier said on Friday.
Ms Palaszczuk said Queensland would not allow new coal trains to threaten the Great Barrier Reef.
“Our action has been in response to a number of threats to the Great Barrier Reef and its critical habitat… as a result we can’t allow the coal trains.”
The cancellation of the festival has also sparked renewed debate about the impact the event could have on the environment.
But festival co-owner John Brash, who is a climate change sceptic, said the cancellation had nothing to do with science.
“It’s about time, and about money — that’s all.
“The reason people are sceptic about the Great Barrier Reef is because it’s been decimated.
“It’s like a war zone, one city has been totally destroyed; the other one has been totally destroyed.