Organisers left over a barrel due to rain

Heavy rain in the lead-up to the 14th annual Bull and Barrel Festival in Dardanup caused the event to be cancelled for the first time.

Festival committee chairwoman Jill Cross said the event was called off because of safety concerns, with flooding to ovals and carparks.

While the cost of the cancellation had not yet been calculated Mrs Cross said it “would be immense”.

She said the event would not be moved to another weekend, instead they would look to forward planning next year’s festival around the same time of year.

“These things take a lot of planning, it’s a 365-day job. Around 15,000 people come and this year we had 180 stall holders booked, the largest number we have had,” she said.

“It impacted thousands of people and community groups as this is their big fundraising event for the year. But, we are realistic and the safety of people coming to the event is the priority.

“We have to keep it in perspective as the probability of this happening again next year is low and because of the lighting of the bull sculpture we wouldn’t be able to move it to the summer season.”

She said they would look at storing the bull sculpture to bring it out next year, as artist Russell Sheridan had put a lot of time and effort into it.

Mrs Cross said it was disappointing they had to cancel the event, but she had already put in a grant application for next year and the committee would consult with sponsors about financial costs incurred.