To all the friends of the Numeralla Folk Festival,
Primarily for safety reasons the 2020 Numeralla Folk Festival has been cancelled.
Numeralla locals and fireys have been dealing with prolonged bushfires for over two weeks. The fires are still active and it is predicted that they will remain so for some weeks. It is currently unsafe for anyone to be camped in or near the village and will likely continue to be so for some time.
Locals are exhausted and even when the fires are over, they will have a lot of tidying up to do.
The Folk Festival Committee have made the difficult, or not so difficult under the circumstances, decision to cancel this year’s Festival in the interests of safety and the wellbeing of the local and the folk communities.
Nevertheless, at a date to be determined, the Numeralla community hopes to organise a post-fires event to celebrate making it through the crisis and to acknowledge and thank all those who have supported the community through fire-fighting, organising, cooking, making donations, giving moral support and in any other way. We will try to keep you posted regarding this.
Further, the committee and Numeralla community at large are saddened to hear of the property and stock losses among the folk community. We extend our deepest condolences to families who have lost loved ones in this disaster.
We are particularly mourning the loss of our dear friend Col Burns, from the upper Belowra Valley who perished in the fire near his property on 31 December. Col was semi Numeralla local, and a regular at the Festival, always quietly lending a hand with deliveries of firewood, doing odd jobs and entertaining us with his many true tales of adventure. Not only one of nature’s gentlemen but a unique character. Vale Col (Rover).
We hope that you are all safe from the fires.