“It was just a thrilling night … but unfortunately we’re in the position we’re in Victoria right now, so we are pausing the festival in line with the lockdown.”
From Friday, his team will start to work out what to do with the remaining three days of the festival after June 3, and whether some shows can be rescheduled for those dates – depending on the nature of the remaining restrictions if the city is out of lockdown. The festival’s more than 100,000 ticket buyers will be contacted if they are affected.
RISING will also work to see if the festival might be extended beyond its planned June 6 closing date, for some events at least. One highlight, Patricia Piccinini’s otherworldly sculpture installation at Flinders St Station, has already been extended to the end of August.
“We are determined to be able for these great works that we have invested so deeply in with the artists of Melbourne, for them to see the light of day,” Obarzanek said. “I have no doubt that we will – but I just can’t tell you how and which way that’s going to happen in the next few days.”
Financially, the festival is structured to take “pretty much exclusively” the box office risk, he said, and contracts with artists will be honoured in good faith.