Are fast cars and classical music incompatible? Organisers of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music are reconsidering the timing of next year's event following an announcement that the V8 Supercar Festival will be happening in Townsville in July 2009. July has been classical music month in the northern Queensland city for the past 18 years and it seems extraordinary that another major event should try to muscle in on its turf. In a media release, festival boss Marg O'Donnell* says the V8 Supercar event will take up significant accommodation and marketing space in the four week lead up to the actual event, not to mention sponsorship dollars and infrastructure changes. "We understand it will take the city at least two weeks to recover from the event, this means we would have to reschedule our festival many weeks later than usual. This has serious ramifications regarding the availability of our artists; Winterschool students; rehearsal space costs, and even of our wonderful artistic director, Piers Lane."
* The actual release calls Ms O'Donnell the festival "chair", but I refuse to refer to a person as a piece of furniture.