The Boating Industry Association (BIA) has cancelled the Sydney Festival of Boating, which was scheduled to run from July 29th to August 1st, to support efforts by government in controlling the current COVID-19 outbreak in Sydney.
The BIA Board yesterday held an extraordinary meeting to consider the latest information from government affecting the Sydney event and determined cancellation was the appropriate decision at this time.
BIA President Darren Vaux said the decision was made more difficult because the exhibition space for the festival was sold out.
“The BIA believed the responsible action was to weigh up the facts, liaise with stakeholders such as our members, government and the venue partner, the International Convention Centre, and to make a decision this week,” Vaux said.
“Cancelling the event supports government efforts to get the current outbreak of COVID-19 and its highly-contagious Delta variant under control. It also recognises the likely challenges that our local and interstate members and exhibitors will encounter over the coming weeks.”
“Our priority was to deliver a celebration of the boating lifestyle and to do so in a COVID Safe way for our members, suppliers, exhibitors and public. It was a difficult decision to cancel the event, especially as there was such strong industry support.”
The BIA will now focus its attention on promoting the boating lifestyle in the run up to the next boating season through programs such as its Discover Boating initiative supported by a multi-media marketing campaign.
More information about Discover Boating at: https://discoverboating.com.au/
More information about jobs in the boating industry at: https://marinejobs.org.au/
More information about the BIA at: www.bia.org.au
