Update: Council have reached out and contacted individual performers as well as shared messages on social channels to let them know the Maitreya Festival will not be going ahead at the Lake Wooroonook grounds.

Victorian Police have also issued a message on Facebook saying they are ‘monitoring’ the situation but have not said they will be shutting it down directly.

Meanwhile organisers are still selling tickets and saying the festival will ‘100%’ go ahead near the original location with a capacity of 10,000.

Locals are torn as the bush doof injects tens of thousands of dollars into the local community but council stand firm that promoters did not fill out forms correctly and legally must decline permission for the festival to go ahead.

Would you still attend?

Maitreya Festival has had the carpet pulled from underneath them, just one month before the popular counter-culture event was set to go ahead.

The festival was meant to occupy the Wooroonook lakes of the Buloke Shire in Victoria’s north-west, this year would have marked the fourth year at this location and the fourth year of mutual benefits for organisers, festival punters, and perhaps most of all, the 1288 strong local population – the shire’s own research has shown that the 2015 installation of Maitreya put $2.1 million into the businesses of the otherwise quiet town. This is a god-send considering that the area has been heavily affected by drought and without the festival, the place would be a lot worse off.

It’s no surprise then that the locals are the people who are fighting hardest for the festival to continue despite the decision of Buloke Shire Council to decline a permit request by the festivals organisers.

“It is with great disappointment that Council has had to decline a licence and issue a notice of intention to refuse a planning permit for the use of the Wooroonook Lakes for staging the Maitreya Festival next month.” The Buloke Shire Council stated. The Council claims that not enough information was required in the request to use the land.

The festival organisers have responded to this via their Facebook page. “We respect the council’s decision and its an unfortunate one. We are going through the correct avenues and have lodged a VCAT application to appeal the decision and are now letting the appeals process take its course.”

Should they have just let the event go ahead despite a supposed “lack of information,” considering the festival would have provided much needed turn-over for the Shire? Let us know what you think.