While there's no doubt that major, financially backed events will return in some form with or without a cure, for many smaller events across the Ballarat and western region COVID normal compliance laws might force them out of action for years, or in some cases, for good.

Any new laws will include capping capacity figures, the checking of details, hiring of security and extra cleaning which will need to be carried out.

But for many small community events it all might become too hard for volunteer committees to co-ordinate.

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Ballarat's Diwali Festival, which would normally be held within the next month and is run through the work of volunteers from the Ballarat Indian Association, is just one example of a festival that will have to accommodate even more now if it is to be able to run in the future.

Committee member Abhijit Khairnar said it was hoped this year's festival could be held in someway online, but future events remained clouded as to how compliance will be reached.

"Keeping the social distance, the number of people coming in, there's always some doubt in your mind that everything is being done normal, any lapse is not good for anyone in the community," he said.

"I think right now, it's a bit premature to say how it will be living in a changed environment and how it will have an impact."

Lavandula Lavender Farm owner-manager Carol White said the cancellation of the Swiss-Italian Fiesta this month and loss of the Lavender Harvest Festival in January were a blow.

"We're going to have to hold off to see what happens," she said. "Whether it's a vaccine, herd immunity, quarantine, who knows?

"You just can't do the compliance for an event, the fines are just too high.

"We're thinking just hold off a year or so, we're already eight months in. The Spanish Flu was a two-to-three year thing. Already people are becoming more attune to what you need to do.

"But you just have to look at England at the moment, Europe, India, I know where I'd much rather be."

Ms White said the festival and events market was now not so much about making money, but providing a savvy, safe and quality experience for the public.

"Yes, the concerns right now outweigh the sticking your neck out, for what reason would you do it?" she said. "These lovely, joyous happenings are wonderful to have, but to have a $10,000 fine, or someone get COVID at your event because someone didn't get tested and wanted to go on the weekend, it's not worth the risk.

"It's getting to a stage people are over it."

Dean Kite Festival and Sheep Dog Trial coordinator Brian Maher said once things stop its hard to get them going.

"Keeping volunteers and keeping everyone involved is incredibly tough - if it wasn't for our sponsors like Greg Slade Transport at Dean, Elders Insurance Ballarat and Hepburn Shire in general sticking by us, it could have been a real concern," he said.

"We always try and do our fundraisers for the soup bus or the fire brigade or Soldier On. We're still going to do a fundraiser for Shannon's Bridge just to try and help people in the community."

Grampians Tourism chief executive officer Marc Sleeman said he fears that compliance will be out of reach for small groups.

"When you look at smaller community events, things like cost of compliance around cleaning, toilets, safety measures for entry, the size of events able to be held, the feedback we are getting is it's very difficult for a lot of events," he said.

"Then that even flows into community sporting events, a lot of these events rely on community participation to operate

"When you start doing the sums, it puts them out of reach.

"These events provide activities in regions, helps with the visitor experience in regions, it's a profile for regions you won't get otherwise, producers, wine makers, it showcases their wares."

Mr Sleeman said without large funding from state bodies or local councils many events could disappear for good.

"If we start to look at compliance, if it is more than 10 per cent of the operating budget, it becomes unviable without major state government funding. Then there's a sense we will lose the 'it' for these events as well."