Statement from Mayor Frank Carbone - Illuminate 2020 postponed

Published on 29 December 2020

Illuminate coloured banner

Today the decision has been made to postpone our Illuminate New Year’s Eve celebration for 2020, due to the ongoing COVID-19 risk in Sydney and the forecast for rainy weather over the next few days.

I know some people will be disappointed by this decision as it has been a hard year and everyone has been looking forward to bringing in 2021 together, but this is the right decision to protect the health and wellbeing of our community.

Council has been closely monitoring the escalating COVID situation in Sydney. The decision was made due to the increasing number of unlinked cases announced in the last few days outside of the Northern Beaches, which potentially means the virus has not been contained. Today, also the Premier raised her concerns about the unlinked cases circulating in Greater Sydney.

While Fairfield Showground and Illuminate have COVID-Safe plans that exceed NSW Health guidelines, and the event could have gone ahead under the current NSW Health guidelines, Council has taken a conservative approach to put the safety and wellbeing of the community first.

One of the reasons Council wanted to host this event was to discourage residents from venturing to the Sydney CBD, which could potentially bring the virus back to Fairfield City. With this in mind, we recommend our residents still celebrate the New Year with family and friends, but avoid going into the city until we can be assured from NSW Health that it is safe.

We know how hard our community has worked this year to overcome COVID, and we need to put the health and wellbeing of everyone first.

Council will refund everyone’s booking fee and Council will look into rescheduling the event in mid-2021 as a potential celebration of the community being able to come together again.

I wish everyone a happy and safe New Year.

Frank Carbone
Mayor of Fairfield City