Gunnedah's cafe and pub owners are feeling "disheartened" about the cancellation of AgQuip, one of their busiest weeks of the year.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Still working through COVID-19 restrictions, the loss of AgQuip punters means more hardship for locals.
Read also:
Imperial Hotel publican Mandy Fathers said the cancellation was yet "another blow" to the pub industry following tighter restrictions announced on Tuesday by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
"AgQuip is our biggest event of the year, and it fills our rooms for three days, so it's another blow to us," she told the NVI.
"You get really disheartened, it's like what's the point?
"It's going to affect us greatly."
Mrs Fathers said when the event was simply postponed, it was "okay to cop", but the cancellation was the straw breaking the camel's back.
"Now that it's not in November either, we just want to write the whole year off," she said.
"There's businesses closed and stuff and you can understand it, it's all too much."
Jack and Jill's Cafe owner Tara Spence said normally, it was good that Gunnedah had AgQuip as the "one thing that guarantees an influx to town".
Now that it's gone, more people would, unfortunately, feel more than a pinch.
"The cancellation means there's going to be a lot of people that miss out," Ms Spence said.
"As a rural town we're very lucky to have AgQuip because other towns don't have that to boost their economy during the year.
"If you're coastal, you're guaranteed to have holiday periods, but we don't have that."
AgQuip stretches far and wide, it has huge benefits for all local suppliers and was certainly a great time to welcome all our friends.
- Parkview Hotel publican Greg Thomas
Parkview Hotel publican Greg Thomas said AgQuip was "the jewel in the crown" for the pub, so this year was "going to hurt".
"It's one thing we'll miss a lot; I've had the same people coming here for the last 14 years," Mr Thomas said.
"It has great economic benefits for Gunnedah and the surrounding districts. AgQuip stretches far and wide, it has huge benefits for all local suppliers and was certainly a great time to welcome all our friends."
But the business owners understood that the decision had to be made by Australian Community Media's (ACM) Rural Events team on Tuesday.
"I was wondering how they were going to manage it, and the hoops they would have had to jump through to pull it off successfully with all the sanitising and restrictions and counting numbers. It would've been really hard to do," Ms Spence said.
"I don't think they would've got the turnout they would like, so they could put all this effort in and people don't even come because the pandemic has hit."