The events industry has been left gutted after Perth’s COVID-19 restrictions were extended, resulting in the cancellation of several New Year’s events and celebrations.

Premier Mark McGowan said the government wasn’t cancelling New Year’s Eve, but they were encouraging people to celebrate with friends and family safely.

Perth remains on high alert amid a growing list of COVID-19 exposure sites and low testing numbers.

Some in the industry described it as “crushing” and heartbreaking with hundreds left without a job on New Year’s.

Music festival Seasons has been cancelled, with organisers, saying “bluntly, this sucks”.

Event organiser Taylor Rule said it had been a rough 24 hours.

“[There’s] a lot of money lost and a lot of staff and employees out of pocket as well,” he told 6PR Breakfast.

He said it was “very annoying” that the Perth Cup would still be able to go ahead, with masks mandatory and proof of vaccination required.

Mr Rule said New Year’s Eve was the biggest night of the year.

“Even more broadly speaking, the past week is the busiest time in the year for our events industry, and now it’s been shut down.”

The industry is nervous ahead of the February 5 re-opening of the state’s domestic borders.

“It’s frustrating over the past two years, our industry I guess the first to shut down, the last to open up.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen on February 5 and we have kind of already planned accordingly, we have pretty much all decided ourselves we wouldn’t be running any events after February 5 because there’s too much uncertainty.”

Press PLAY below to hear why they’re nervous in the lead-up to February 5

Saran Bajan, the managing director of the Origin Fields music festival, said they were still figuring out the exact losses.

“It’s been 20 months and we still don’t have some kind of written plan or mandate as to how we react to an outbreak,” he told Harvey Deegan on 6PR Mornings.

He said they have been forced to adapt due to a lack of insurance options.

George Gunson from the band Death by Denim said he felt there was a double standard.

“I feel like the music industry is the first to be thrown under the bus, for reasonable cause.”

He said while they appreciated the difficult decisions being made, it appeared hypocritical to allow horse racing to go ahead.

Press PLAY below to hear what they are calling for from the government

Image: Getty iStock