The announcement of five-day lockdown for all of Victoria following a COVID-19 outbreak in Melbourne has sent Ballarat businesses scrambling to enact lockdown plans they hoped would never be used again.
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With stay-at-home orders enforced, Valentine's Day weekend plans have been cancelled for many, causing businesses to face imminent losses from missed bookings and wasted produce.
For some, the lockdown has forced an entire weekend's worth of events to be cancelled at a moment's notice.
Rock Ballarat was set to take over the Civic Hall precinct all weekend with paid events inside and a free 'precinct party' outside. But now, director Stevie Kaze has been forced to postpone three days of events until an undetermined date later this year.
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Mr Kaze said the announcement, while devastating, was not unexpected and would put the festival under some financial pressure.
"We only made the decision at 8am on Thursday that we would actually go ahead. Now, in hindsight, that looks like it would've been a fantastic decision but we stuck to our guns because we thought we would at last have had the opportunity to provide a festival for the people of regional Victoria, if not Melbourne," told The Courier.
"We are definitely going to be under financial strain due to the fact we can't go ahead. While there are things we haven't had to pay for yet that we've been able to cancel without loss, there's still quite a bit we've put in out of our own pockets to run the festival.
"It's not just about the financial side in running Rock Ballarat. For us, it's about running the festival itself and the people that come along. We know a lot of them personally, they come every year. At the moment, while we're going to be in some pain, we can get past that and still hold another event this year."
Mr Kaze said because the event was deferred and not cancelled, all tickets would be honoured when the event goes ahead later this year and refunds would also be available.
Many hospitality businesses had already finished preparations and had fridges stocked for the weekend when Premier Daniel Andrews announced the new lockdown measures just after 1pm on Friday, much of which is now likely to be thrown out with venues taking a loss.
Commerce Ballarat chief executive Jodie Gillett said many venues were completely booked out and called on those whose bookings were cancelled to instead order takeaway from those venues.
"We had a number of events, most venues were booked out, we have Valentine's Day on Sunday. What we're calling for is everyone in Ballarat, if you were going out for dinner, make sure you're doing it at home. We need to come together as a community and make sure our economy keeps ticking over," she said.
"Heaps of businesses have stocked up and there will be massive stock losses so we can all do our part by spending a little money, if you have it."
Ms Gillett said businesses were devastated by being forced back into lockdown for a third time in 12 months.
"Things were going along really well for them but, to their credit, their response is always concern for the community's health and we implore the government to ensure they get this under control and our community will support them in that so we can be back up and running on Thursday," she said.
To cope with the massive amount of stock it received in preparation for the weekend, The Forge Pizzeria has returned to making heat-and-eat meals that were popular during previous lockdowns.
Its devastating, heartbreaking and a kick in the guts, that's the only way to describe it.
- Sovereign Park Motor Inn owner Tim Canny
The Forge Pizzeria owner Tim Matthews said while, much like the rest of the state, he was disappointed, a five days in lockdown was better than a couple months.
"There's no questioning everyone's frustrated. I think the people that make these decisions are aware of the impact, it's just the unfortunate nature of this pandemic we're in," he said.
"Hospitality is quite a resilient industry so we just have to get through these five days. I think we always knew we weren't out of the trouble and we were always planning for a tough 2021 and this is unfortunately part of what we were expecting."
With a busy weekend ahead, Sovereign Park Motor Inn was one of several Ballarat accommodation businesses with a full slate of bookings. Now, the motel is virtually empty with more than 50 bookings cancelled on Friday afternoon.
Owner Tim Canny said he was heartbroken about the lockdown announcement, calling it 'a kick in the guts'.
"We had 64 rooms booked in tomorrow and would likely have one or two now," he said. "[We could lose] between $30,000 to $40,000 over the next five days.
"We were just getting our feet back on the ground, we had a couple of good months with school holidays but for this to happen is quite sad."
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