Organisers of ‘A Festival Called PANAMA’ have announced the event won’t be returning in 2026, citing concerns over planned logging near the festival’s home.
The Panama forest is among tens of thousands of hectares of land earmarked for potential logging.
“It’s the right time for us and it will be nice for the land and the valley to have some time to rest,” organisers said.
“This community is a special one and we look forward to working out what makes sense for us in the coming years.”
“We appreciate your support. It has been the honour of our lives to run this event.”
The 2025 edition took place earlier this month in Lone Star Valley and featured headliners Magdalena Bay, Hermanos Gutiérrez and Bonny Light Horseman.
Organisers described this year’s gathering as “majestic and beautiful”.
The state government has promised to release 40,000 hectares of forest for logging as part of its ‘wood bank’ election commitment.
The exact location of the forests set for logging remains unclear, with recent Right to Information documents on the topic published by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment heavily redacted.
Greens Deputy Leader Vica Bayley took to social media to say the logging can’t be allowed to happen.
“This is an incredibly special forest, home to rare and endangered species, an incredible backdrop to one of Tasmania’s most iconic music festivals, protected over a decade ago and now on the chopper,” he said.
“Thanks to A Festival Called Panama for … raising the alarm about this attempt to undo the protection for the Panama forests and another 37,000 hectares of forests around the north and the north-east of Tasmania.”
The Tasmanian Government have suggested organisers are attempting to scaremonger people.
“This is pure speculation from a festival sponsored by the Bob Brown Foundation,” a government spokesperson said.
“As has been said on multiple occasions, any parcels of FPPF land identified for potential conversion to PTPZ will be brought before Parliament for its consideration.”
