Firstly a very big and sincere thanks to all the Byron Bay businesses and volunteers that assisted during the 2021 festival. With your help we had a very successful weekend of events, with lots of smiles, hearty moments and gratitude, from both the patrons and the BBSF team. Much appreciated, we’re stoked!
We knew we were taking some potential new risks running BBSF during Covid times but we also prepared for those as we were directed by both the venues and also the law. A couple of challenges popped up here and there, as you can imagine they do, during a festival…One of those moments, not necessarily a Covid-rules-related situation, was a supply glitch which precluded the showing of the brilliant film “Girls Can’t Surf” at the Byron Theatre, Friday evening, which required us to relocate the actually screening part of the evening to the neighbours over the road at Palace Cinemas. Thankyou Palace for accommodating all 199 of us last minute and Byron Theatre for making it all work so smoothly!
The other unfortunate situation we faced, on Saturday evening, was Covid related, wherein certain venue capacity laws are in place, and we bumped square into one. The misunderstanding occurred over at Woody’s Surf Shack during the second live music set by Dear Doonan. First and foremost, we apologise unreservedly to those few second set ticket holders who were unable to get into Woodys to see the band. It seems not all who were present at the first set were prepared to leave as we needed them too, to make space for the second crew to get in for their turn at the fun. We will be providing those ticket holders with a full refund. It should not have happened but it did. BBSF had no control or authority over the patrons movements or the security in that venue. Please accept our sincere apologies
Secondly, we also apologise on behalf of a few of the authorised personnel present on the evening who took, what we think, was a rather dramatic, draconian and heavy-worded approach. It certainly wasn’t properly in keeping with the BBSF Surf Culture philosophy, the vibe of the weekend, the way we go about things, or the actual needs at the time on the night.
Finally, it must be stated that BBSF did not oversell tickets. That is not something that BBSF would ever do, and it is not something that we could have done given the capacity laws physically in place, and on line. It is not in keeping with our Festival vision or ethos and this simply would not happen.
Thank you to everyone who supported BBSF 2021 and enjoyed what was a rather fabulous surf-stoked long weekend of Surf Culture. We hope to see you again in 2022
Sincerely,
BBSF