Mercedes-Benz Fashion Festival Brisbane will be cancelled for 2020.
Organisers concluded that this year’s event would not be viable given health and safety concerns as well as financial strain due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The event was scheduled to run from August 25.
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Festival Brisbane director Lindsay Bennett said that while he and key stakeholders had hoped the Festival’s scheduled date for late August would help, with so much uncertainty it was not feasible to organise the Festival in a way that would provide a fitting outcome for designers, sponsors, and ticketholders.
“While we hope that the world is past the peak of this terrible pandemic and well on its way to recovery soon, it is just too uncertain right now how long social distancing measures will need to be kept in place, and what kind of financial position the industry will be in at the time the Fashion Festival was planned to go ahead,” Bennett said.
“We would not want to put our designers and sponsors in the position of preparing for the event, with the possibility of it needing to be cancelled last-minute. Many industries, including our local Queensland and Australian fashion industries, are in an extremely difficult position right now.
“Our hope was to provide the Fashion Festival as a beacon for the industry and to invite designers and our fashion-loving public for a much-needed celebration come August, so we are truly devastated to have to make this call. However, the health, safety and wellbeing of all involved is our utmost priority,” Bennett said.
While the 2020 event is unable to proceed, organisers encourage people to continue supporting the local industry.
“We understand that many are doing it tough right now, and our local designers are among them. We would encourage those who are still shopping online to choose Queensland and Australian brands, to help keep our talented creatives afloat,” Bennett said.