It's feast or famine in the ticket sellers' world, especially in the volatile COVID-19 market.
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The cancellation of races last weekend, and the postponement of the Mudgee Field Days in NSW(which was to be this weekend), has resulted in the loss of 15,000 tickets across both events.
For the sellers, Dubbo-based 123 Tix, the abrupt cancellations are a well-trodden path.
"We were tracking really well until this latest lockdown," 123 Tix director Terry Wilcher said. "It's like 2020 when everything just stopped without warning.
"It's feast or famine. It's a very hard game to be involved in, especially during this Covid period because you put all this work into preparation for an event, and it can be taken away from you at the last minute.
"The Duck Creek Races are a perfect example - the event was a complete sellout, then two days before it was on, it was cancelled."
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It's the second year in a row that both events have been impacted. The Mudgee Field Days have been postponed until November 5 and 6. Tickets are still valid, or you can get a refund up until July 31.
All Duck Creek races tickets were refunded.
"This school holidays period is probably the quietest school holidays we've seen," Mr Wilcher said. "We do the Great Big Adventure Pass which includes Old Dubbo Gaol, the Zoo, Wellington Caves and the RFDS Experience Centre, and the target market really is the visiting tourists from Greater Sydney, the Hunter Valley and also the Central Coast - which a lot of people probably don't realise.
"We also usually get a lot of visitors from Queensland and Victoria."
The 123 Tix story is a successful one - launching at the end of 2015, managing sales for less than 10 events in its first 12 months. After winning the 2018 Regional Business of the Year, business exploded. It manages events all along the Australian eastern seaboard, and is this year close to approaching 20,000 events.
Some of those upcoming events include the Louth Races on August 7, the Trangie Truck and Tractor Show on August 21 (tickets for both are on sale now), and then there's the Parkes Elvis Festival which is in January.
It can be heartbreaking in this Covid-era for event organisers, ticket sellers and all the associated businesses to plan such a big occasion so far in advance, only to have it cancelled at the last minute.
But they don't have much choice.