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Victoria’s Gaytimes Festival has announced it will be taking a hiatus for 2026.

The festival, which is in its ninth year, is Australia’s first LGBTQIA+ camping festival, and offers up a weekend of music, art, community, sexuality and self-expression for the LGBTIQ+ community.

In a statement, festival director Anna Whitelaw said the cost of running the festival was becoming too expensive.

“As an independent community-run festival, Gaytimes is self-financed almost entirely from ticket revenue with very little support from external sources like government funding, sponsorship or philanthropy,” she said.

“Despite our best efforts, running a festival like ours is simply becoming too hard. For these reasons, we have made the difficult decision to take next year off.

However, the doors aren’t completely closed for Gaytimes, with Whitelaw emphasising that organisers hope the hiatus is temporary.

“We hope this isn’t forever 鈥� and we will be working hard to return in 2027.

“We plan to use this time to recalibrate and find a workable model so Gaytimes can continue in some form for the next decade.”

“We also want to give our devoted team a well-earned break and time to work on other projects.”

Gaytimes was launched in 2016, with Whitelaw saying she had dreamed of running a festival for years.

鈥淚 think the LGBT community has a very unique need to have safe spaces where they can congregate, be themselves and find each other, because we don鈥檛 always feel safe and comfortable in everyday life,鈥� she told the Star Observer shortly before their first festival .

鈥淓ven at mainstream music festivals today, two girls kissing or two guys kissing might attract stares.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 why gay and lesbian bars and clubs, queer parties, queer community groups and LGBTIQ festivals are so important, and why we as a community need to continue to support them.鈥�

Grim future for Australian festivals

Gaytimes isn’t the only Australian music festival feeling the pinch.

Multiple other festivals have cancelled their programs or gone on hiatus, many citing the cost of living crisis.

In 2024, the iconic 聽was cancelled for 2024 due to 鈥渦nexpected events鈥�, and travelling regional festival聽 was also cancelled earlier in the year due to a lack of sales.

Last year, also announced that their 2025 festival, held over the Easter long weekend, will be their last.

In addition to audiences having tighter budgets, the live music industry is still from the impacts of COVID, as well as unreliable weather due to climate change.

Gaytimes is still scheduled to go ahead for 2025, with tickets almost sold out for its dates in late March.

The Star Observer reached out to Gaytimes organisers for comment but did not receive a response before time of publishing.