THE show won't go on for many arts events in the south-west.
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Holiday Actors has postponed the summer season of Shrek the Musical to next year as increasing COVID-19 cases are reported.
The Warrnambool Organ Festival, Music in the Vines and Hooked on Portland have also been postponed.
Holiday Actors marketing manager Elana Agnew said the lack of access to rapid antigen tests for performers and crew members made it difficult to run the show.
"Several cast and crew have tested positive with some waiting for PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests," Ms Agnew said. "Some of them have been close contacts with the local outbreak. "We have 80 volunteers with their masks off during the performance, which puts our community at risk."
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She said the health and wellbeing of the company and community was priority. "We don't feel that we can continue with the production safely at this time," Ms Agnew said.
She said the show was held during summer because the performers were on school holidays and volunteers were on breaks from work.
Shrek the Musical director Tyler Hess said had the show run two weeks ago, the production may have "just scraped in". "With the information we have now it would be remiss of us not to cancel the show at this time because it's too big of a risk," he said.
Mr Hess said although Holiday Actors wanted to bring joy to the community, by pausing the show they were doing their part in preventing the spread of the virus. "It's incredibly disappointing for the community to not enjoy the joy of what we've prepared, but undoubtedly we'll bring it back just as spectacular in 2023," he said.
"We hope that everyone will be there to support us. It's amazing what has been achieved and we want to make sure we get full houses because the show deserves it."
Mr Hess said Warrnambool's arts community had strengthened during the past year. "The silver lining of this pandemic is that we're attracting more people that want to be involved and jump on board the performing arts as a way of coping in a time like this," he said.
A further announcement regarding Holiday Actors and Warrnambool Theatre Company's joint production of Cats is yet to be made.
Organ festival performers have also been hit with COVID-19. "One performer has returned a positive test result and another is a close contact and is currently isolating and unable to attend rehearsals," organisers said in a statement. They said it left them with no alternative but to cancel this weekend's concerts.
"We would like to thank everyone for their support with the festival and we hope to be in a position to announce new dates soon," organisers said.
"The festival is determined to present EmbedED III by local composer and musician Jeanette Hajncl, a brand new work based on the composer's time as artist in residence in South West Healthcare's emergency department.
"This performance was to have featured local choir Cantori alongside an exciting line-up of musicians from Melbourne, some of whom were also set to take part in Sunday's concert featuring Ballarat-based organist Calvin Bowman performing organ works and some of his original songs.
"The festival recognises how disappointing this will be for the musicians involved, many of whom have not been able to perform for a long time now due to COVID lockdowns." Tickets for Shrek and the organ festival will be fully refunded.
Music in the Vines, set to run at Suffoir Winery, Brewery and Distillery at Macarthur next month has also been postponed until next year. "With the risk of the Omicron peak occurring at the time of our event, the health of our festival patrons, the wider community, musicians, vendors, contractors and volunteers is our top priority," organisers said in a statement.
"Widespread staff shortages are already impacting our community, meaning our festival faces many risks from different directions.
"If our volunteers, contractors, musicians or vendors are affected by COVID, they cannot be replaced. This poses a real threat to our ability to deliver the festival as promised in 2022."
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