An iconic ABBA Festival which was to have been held from October 17 to October 19 has been cancelled.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The Parkes Shire Council, which assumed responsibility for the community-led event at Trundle in the NSW Central West after COVID-19, has had to pull out because of "financial constraints".
Cr Neil Westcott, the Parkes mayor, said the decision not to proceed was made reluctantly: "It is gut wrenching to walk away from it," he said.
Village residents, while disappointed by the cancellation, are not giving up without fight.
They have claimed the vacant dates for the inaugural "All Roads Lead To Trundle" in order to keep the crowds coming, support local businesses and celebrate their town.
"All Roads" kicks off with the annual Pink Night Cancer Council Charity fundraiser on October 17 and kicks on with live music at Trundle Hotel and the Grain and Press Cafe, a golf tournament and a street market on Saturday, October 18. Sunday has been set aside for the recovery.
Early hopes that either state or federal government funding might have saved this year's ABBA Festival, flagged at a community meeting chaired by Cr Westcott in March, came to nought after every grant application lodged by the PSC was rejected.
"Unfortunately grants for regional events and festivals have been very scarce under the Labor [state and federal] governments," a PSC spokesperson said.
"There is now only one fund for large events under Destination NSW. The decision was made to apply for the Parkes Elvis festival as, without funding, its future was also not secure."
Cr Westcott said the council had lost hundreds of thousands staging three events in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
The 2022 event was literally a disaster. The rain that caused millions of dollars of infrastructure damage to communities across the Central West saw Trundle cut off from the outside world for days.
Despite relocating the performance by headline act Bjorn Again to Parkes the council lost almost all of the money it had spent preparing for the event. The 2023 festival also recorded a loss.
Ticket sales for last year's event, which cost $500,000 to stage, were only half of what the PSC had budgeted for leaving ratepayers on the hook for $250,000.
"Council took massive losses over the three ABBA events it ran and there is a limit to what we can ask of the ratepayers,'' Cr Westcott said.
The PSC is already between a rock and a hard place because, like many flood affected councils, it is grappling to plug the gap between the actual cost of repairing infrastructure damage and the limited support it receives from state and federal sources.
That said, Cr Westcott and others on the council, remain hopeful the event will return in 2026 after a short break.
"There has been talk of a community-led ABBA Festival to be held in Autumn next year," he said. "Council is stepping back from organising and underwriting the festival but not the event itself.
"If it does go ahead next year we will be assisting the community to stage it in any way we can".
In the meantime the people of Trundle are appealing to the people who would normally come to the village for ABBA to keep the date free this year.
Local businesswoman Caroline Keep, a breast cancer survivor, will be staging Trundle's 10th "Pink Night" Cancer Council fundraiser at the Trundle Golf Club on the evening of Friday, October 17.
"For 10 years we've kicked off the Trundle ABBA Festival and this year sadly there is no ABBA fest," Ms Keep said.
"Will that stop us? The short answer is no. We have an epic weekend planned. We are always so humbled and grateful for all the support for our Cancer Council's "Do It For Cancer" night covering all women's cancer.
"We can't wait to see you all. And for all our ABBA lovers, trust me; the band still has some ABBA numbers on their play list."
Trundle Hotel publican Kate Procopis said that even though ABBA was in hiatus there were still plenty of reasons to make the trip to Trundle.
"We are not a committee but we are working together to get people back to Trundle and help the town financially," she said.
The hotel will be hosting live music from noon to midnight on Saturday with acts including Gracey Jones, Amitie and Blake Noll.
Grain and Press, the main street cafe, will have live music on Saturday morning, the Trundle Daycare Centre is holding an Ambrose with "great prizes" at the towns 18 hole sandgreen course on Saturday afternoon.
There will also be street markets for car buffs on Saturday.
On Sunday there will be live music at the Trundle Services Club and an open day at St Patrick's School.
David Ellery
More from Entertainment
Twice weekly
Voice of Real Australia
Get real, Australia! Let the ACM network's editors and journalists bring you news and views from all over.
