Moomba festival on Labour Day weekend to go ahead after City of Melbourne backflip

Melbourne’s annual Moomba festival has been revived after an announcement was made yesterday that it would be cancelled.

The City of Melbourne had blamed COVID-19 restrictions and the recent five-day lockdown for the cancellation of the annual Labour Day festival along the banks of the Yarra River.

But in a statement this afternoon, Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp said cancelling it was a mistake and the message from the community was loud and clear.

“Melburnians want Moomba to proceed,” she said.

Moomba 2.0 will go ahead on the long weekend with a reduced program of events — the annual Birman Rally, parade and water skiing will not be going ahead.

“We worked tirelessly overnight to ensure more events will be put on as part of Moomba 2.0,”…