Lights out for White Night

WHITE Night Bendigo will no longer go ahead as planned on 2 October, with the event to be rescheduled as Victoria’s COVID-19 outbreak grows.

The announcement was made last Thursday by Visit Victoria and came six weeks ahead of the State-owned event’s original date.

Manager of tourism and major events at the City of Greater Bendigo, Terry Karamaloudis, said the decision was made by the Victorian Government to stop the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant.

“The State’s really concerned about the viral nature of the Delta strain,” he said. “I know that there’s a grave concern about just how easy it is for that thing to spread.”

“The last thing we want in Greater Bendigo is a super spreader event, I think everyone would agree with that.”

In 2018, White Night drew some 60,000 attendees with its light and sound displays, projections and street food.

Mr Karamaloudis said the pandemic was a “challenging situation” for event organisers, and White Night’s postponement was another blow for businesses involved.

“For the business community, it’s just going to be unfortunately another hit on the back of a long list of difficult circumstances which is really disappointing.

“But I also can’t help but think that the health and wellbeing of our community… still needs to remain the number one priority.”

He said the timing of the decision would allow for businesses to reassess their operations, including staffing rosters and stock levels, and “gives them a little bit of an opportunity to reposition as best as they can”.

The search is already underway for a new date, and Mr Karamaloudis said sometime in the cooler seasons would be the most appropriate option.

“To run White Night during daylight savings hours is not the optimal time because it’s not dark early enough, so we’re realistically now looking at the autumn and early winter period.

“I don’t think it’ll be far away [when] we will be able to come back to our community about the revised date for White Night in 2022.”