Yours & Owls changes date, while EDM festival Breakfest cancels for 2020

Things in music festival land haven’t settled down yet, it seems.

Wollongong’s Yours & Owls has this morning announced it will shift from January to April, while Perth’s longest-running EDM event, Breakfest, has cancelled for this year.

Yours & Owls will now be staged between April 17-18, still at Stuart Park in Wollongong.

Promoters explained, “The short story is, we want to deliver the festival to you all in the closest form possible that you are used to from us.

“With January now on our doorstep and so many regulations still up in the air, we have decided to move to April to give us a more concrete opportunity to achieve that and ensure you all have time to sort your travel and accom logistics.”

The outstanding bill remains the same, with acts including Tones And I, BENEE, Lime Cordiale, Pnau, Cosmo’s Midnight, DMA’S, Hayden James, Hockey Dad, JK-47 and Winston Surfshirt.

Breakfest was to celebrate its 20th year on Boxing Day at Belvoir Amphitheatre, and organisers said they had “prepared a full and comprehensive COVID Event Plan” which included a limited capacity.

They claim that WA Health and the chief health officer knocked it back because the “performance areas act as a focal point, drawing crowds in close proximity” and consumption of alcohol “over an extended period of time leads to non-compliance of patrons with risk mitigation strategies”.

They were told the event could only go ahead if had a maximum of 1,500 patrons, just one stage, restrictions on the dancefloor, restricted service of alcohol and reduced hours.

Instead, there will be a small-scale celebration as One More Time at The Court Hotel in Perth with Kid Kenobi, Ekko & Sidetrack and Greg Packer, among others.