Paul McCartney and the McCartney family will not be able to appear at the Ballarat International Foto Biennale this year, with the pandemic preventing their visit.
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The Ballarat International Foto Biennale opens in August and will be headlined by a collection of more than 200 works by the late Linda McCartney, hosted at the Art Gallery of Ballarat.
The works, plus additional items such as original early proof sheets, have landed in Australia and are ready to be transported to Ballarat in time for the festival's opening.
Artistic director and chief executive Fiona Sweet said while the McCartney family were thrilled to have the first international exhibition of Linda's work exclusively in Ballarat, they were unable to attend the festival.
"The plan was that the McCartney family was going to come and it was written within our contract but now since COVID, there's absolutely no possible way that they can attend, unfortunately," she said.
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"We've worked with state government to try and work out ways that we can actually support their quarantine, but it's just too long a time to quarantine so the answer is, sadly, no.
"I do know that Paul McCartney is planning to tour anyway in the next few years and, who knows, maybe he will decide to do a very small pop-up here in Ballarat.
"We have a beautiful letter from him in the intro, so that's really very special."
The Ballarat International Foto Biennale launches on Saturday August 28 and runs until Sunday, October 24.
More information and tickets are available at www.ballaratfoto.org.
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