Dog lovers across the shire will unfortunately have to wait another couple of months to enter their four-legged friends in Pink Up Your Pooch.
The event, scheduled to go ahead this Sunday, has been postponed due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Event organisers Karen Kirkby and Sue Duncan are saddened by the news, but say it’s better to be safe than sorry.
“Pink Up Your Pooch fell into a bit of a grey area under the current rules,” Ms Kirkby said.
“It’s classified as a ticketed event, which should be allowed to go ahead in line with COVID restrictions, but couldn’t be classified as a controlled event since the park is open to the public.
“The current rules stipulate that no more than 50 people can attend an uncontrolled event, which would include the Pink Up volunteers – we figure this would hinder our fundraising efforts and force lots of interested locals to miss out.
“Meanwhile our street dinner fundraiser will be fenced off, so it is allowed to go ahead as a controlled event, as planned.
“Rather than risking getting in trouble, we thought it was best just to postpone Pink Up Your Pooch until December when we predict the COVID rules will be further relaxed.
Ms Kirkby explained that, while the extended wait is cumbersome, there is a silver lining.
“By waiting until December, we’re giving BackTrack Youth Work a chance to reschedule with us so the audience can be treated to a dog demonstration in addition to the pink pooches,” she said.
“The postponement simply gives us more time to organise an even bigger and better event, hopefully with less strict COVID measures.”
The spectator and participant raffles will still go ahead as planned, when the December event takes place.
Read more stories on Pink Up here:
- Pink power continues to spread across shire
- Creative bras support Pink Up’s fundraising efforts
- Boggabri’s Pink Up for breast cancer | PHOTOS
