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Byron Bay Mayor Simon Richardson says the region’s Bluesfest music festival has a “fantastic” COVIDSafe plan but there are concerns about ensuring south east Queensland ticket holders do not attend due to the latest outbreak. Any decisions about cancelling the event would depend on COVID test results in the community, after Queensland reported five new cases on Tuesday in people who had attend a party in Byron Bay. “I think so far we haven’t had a positive result, but we’ll learn more about that mid-morning and obviously we’ll respond then," he told Sky News. “So clearly if there’s a lot of cases and south east Queensland just over our border explodes a bit, I would expect the government to re-look at it". Mr Richardson said the organisers want to support the music industry and the jobs it created for Byron Bay despite probably taking a financial hit to do so. “Their COVID safety plan on site is fantastic, the only concern of course we’ve got is the maybe 5,000 south east Queensland ticket holders and whether they will not come," he said. “I think just asking them not to come or just requesting certain people do certain things perhaps isn’t enough for our local community, we’d like clear directions and orders rather than requests”.
