The Port Fairy Jazz Festival, scheduled to take place on the second weekend of February in 2021, will not go ahead.

Since its inaugural staging in 2017, the festival has quickly established itself as a popular event, drawing a large number of visitors to the town.

Last year a feature of the event was a world record attempt for the most people coming together to perform the dance, The Charleston.

While the attempt fell short, it did create extra interest in the festival and brought the streets of Port Fairy alive with colour and movement.

Port Fairy Jazz Festival president Rod Carter said the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions around it had made the decision to cancel the festival an obvious one.

"After considering the current risks and requirements of holding the 2021 festival, the committee regrets to announce that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was decided to cancel the 2021 Port Fairy Jazz Festival to ensure the health and safety of its participants and Port Fairy community, and the future viability of the festival," he said

"The committee delayed the calling for band registrations and early bird tickets by a month in the hope that the COVID-19 situation would improve.

"However, the deterioration in July and August has left the committee with no option but to now cancel the 2021 festival.

"We will now investigate how we could facilitate connecting jazz lovers, jazz musicians and their music and stories via our website."

Mr Carter said the festival would look at possibly running an outdoor concert, with social distancing, on the weekend the festival was to be held.

He said the festival had built solid momentum over the past four years, with 1500 tickets sold in 2020.

The 2020 festival featured 120 bands that played across 10 venues in the town.

As well as the Charleston world record attempt, a street parade down Sackville Street also weaved the event through the heart of Port Fairy.